Day of Ordell
by dragonrose8910
Summary: My name is Tora Chael. I am from the easily forgotten region of Ordell. I am a pokemon ranger and I know something is very, very wrong with my home region. Something big is going to happen. It's not my job to fight them. But I will. No matter who it is I'm fighting.
1. Prologue

"TorTor!" a voice cried out into the night.

My head spun around as I saw her standing on the edge of our village. The warm glowing flames from the town giving off an ethereal light around the little girl. The green-haired girl wore a very plain dress that fell down to her toes, her fingers bunching at the dresses sides as she waited for my response. Her silver eyes, which differed much from my golden ones, sparkled as she looked at me. "What is it, Trine?" I asked her softly, trying to hide my irritation that she was bothering me during my training.

My little sister stuck out her tongue at me innocently as she ordered, "I want you to read me a bedtime story."

"Can't mom do that? I'm busy training."

"She said you shouldn't be training at all. Plus you tell bedtime stories way better than momma. She messes up the words a lot."

My shoulders fell as I looked at the nine-year old, "I don't care what mom says, I'm going to keep training-"

Trine pouted angrily before cutting me off with a stomp of her foot, "Read me a bedtime story!"

 _How could someone ten years younger than me be so terrifying?_ I asked myself with a flinch.

I gritted my teeth before nodding slightly. " _Fine_ _,_ I'll read you a bedtime story," I turned my head to look back to my pokemon and motioned for her to follow us. The Embrace pokemon nodded as the three of us all made our way to the wooden house. It was a rustic two-story home with a stone chimney puffing out grey bellows of smoke. There were two torches greeting us at the front door. Pushing through the door, I tugged at Trine, whose hand was intertwined with mine. She and I stepped upstairs and entered her room which laid across from mine.

The room was pretty small, only containing three real pieces of furniture. One was a very pink twin-sized bed which took up most of the room. To the left of that was her, also, pink dresser. And to the right was a small writing desk our dad built for her, which was suprisingly a brownish color. On that desk were two things: a flickering oil lamp and an old leather book.

Trine excitedly bounced into her bed, snuggling under her covers as she cuddled a little Natu who blinked its acknowledgments to me. "Read, read, read, read," the girl with long green curls repeated.

Letting out a light sigh of amusement, I strode over to the writing desk and picked up the aged storybook. Taking a seat on the side of her bed, I pulled back a strand of my ivy hair and turned to the first page,

"Once upon a time, there was a small country that was easily forgotten by the world around it. But to the fair people who resided in the forgotten land, they called this place home. And to them, home was the most important thing. Each person, from child to elderly, from man to woman, lived a humble life. Even the pokemon there were of the meeker living. They all lived harmoniously in the beautifully modest region of Ordell.

"Many mountains rose like the bones of Pokearth to keep the people separated from one another. But one man rose to unite the gentle people of Ordell. He was kind and especially loving of his home. He created a city in the Enchanted Woods to the South-East of the region. The man was determined to create his ideal life for all Ordellians, he leading them as their king.

"Though this man was honest, he was blinded by his ideals and grew a hatred for those he didn't see as perfect for Ordell. He sat on the throne and brooded for the demise of all that was imperfect. The more his hatred grew, the darker he became and the more people's love and trust- turned to fear. Over the many coming decades, as this man became old and withered, he devised the plan for his ideal Ordell. It was perfect, he foolishly believed.

"Little did he know, a hero would one day come. This hero wasn't born of noble roots or have any sort of special power of a chosen one. He was a simple boy born in a little village on the outside of all the cities that once stood. His name was Conlan Nero, but like the county he was born it, it was easily forgotten. Conlan and his partner, Kadabra, grew strong with age to the point he could take down great Dragonite beside his partner. But his tales of strife and victory were always won in the shadows of night, he the hero who was unwanting the glory. All Conlan wanted was to know that the people of the kingdom he loved were safe.

"Still, people would soon figure out Conlan Nero's heroics and he was hailed a savior. His epic tales were even heard by the corrupted king on the throne. This king was enraged that he wasn't the one saving them, that this peasant was receiving any glory at all. But as a king must, he never showed his disliking for Conlan. Even when the young hero was called to the Castle for knighting by the king.

"There in the castle, the corrupted king offered Conlan a part in his plan for a perfect Ordellian world. You see, the king had conspired to bring a God into their world. One of mass destruction. Conlan knew this would eradicate all that he loved in the easily forgotten land of Ordell. So the hero spoke out against this plan. This act though was one of treason in the eyes of the corrupted king. One that could have had Conlan executed. But it was thanks to the hero's reputation that saved his life.

"Therefore, Conlan Nero, the heroic knight of Ordell, was exiled from the kingdom he loved. Forced to wander lost and alone as the corrupted king's plan began to unfold in front of his eyes. But what could poor Conlan do? He was going to watch his home be destroyed. And for a time, he did.

"The god forced into this world screamed out and shattered homes. It burnt villages. And stole thousands of lives. Conlan Nero no longer could just watch as he dove head on into battle. People who watched the valiant exiled hero wept at his courage how each time he was blown beck, he got up and was stronger for it

"His Partner, Kadabra, did everything it could to protect its master. And when the battle seemed where all was lost, Conlan on his knees, the god armed its fatally blowing attack right at our hero. When it was fired, even the great Conlan thought this battle was for naught and his life would be gone. That was when the Psychic-partner used its powers to switch places with the hero and take the blow.

"Conlan Nero raced over to his partner to find it was too far gone to save. He couldn't stand for that. He lost the only one who stayed by his side when he was all alone. The hero slew the god with a purpose and vengeance. People who lived hailed Conlan as a true chosen savior. Horrified that his plans fell apart, the corrupted king disappeared and was never heard from again. Now what happened to Conlan and the rest of Ordell? Well, that is an easy one. They rebuilt what was lost,

"And we all live happily ever after."

Carefully looking over the old fairytale book, I saw my little sister with her head buried into her pillow. Her side rose and fell rhythmically as a smile parted at her drooling mouth. Her fair little eyes were shut, slightly fluttering with the dreams that danced behind them. I smiled at her and tenderly brushed back the locks of hair that were getting stuck in her spittle. "Good night, Trine," I said, making my exit from the room.

The closed book sat askew on her desk, its leather imprinted picture on the cover.

 **A/N: Ehhh. So, if you want to understand a bit more- XD My wattpad account has a bit more about this story. This is a completely OC story so yep. GOOD LUCK! I hope you enjoy!**


	2. Chapter 1

"Your right side is wide open," I told my partner as I made a fluid swing to the psychic-type's right shoulder. My closed palm smashed into her ivy-colored arm, causing the pokemon to let out a slight outcry as her left hand came swinging in to clap my head. I ducked under and jumped with an upper-cut to her jaw, making contact with a crackle.

Her elegant body soon flickered from sight, sending chills up my spine when the uncertainty of where she may lurk settled in.

"Voir," her voice echoed to my left ear. I couldn't have had any time to react as I began to turn, her arm lunging into my ribcage from behind. I crumpled over, using the fall to my advantage as I swung my leg out. My grey dress hem suddenly caught on a root curling out from the ground.

Tugging at the hooked cloth, I let out a hollow sigh. "Halt attack, Gardevoir," I said. The guardian-like pokemon froze in her position of mid-attack before bending down to where I was hooked. She plucked at the stick which poked through the fabric. "I really hate this dress," I groaned, using my strength to tear right through the dress to get the skirt free.

"Momma still doesn't like you sneaking out to train," a child's voice broke from some nearby trees. A young green haired girl at the age of nine was lying up against a tall oak, yawning slightly, "Especially when you tear your clothes."

I rose back to my feet, giving my clothes a patting out as I said, "Well, Trine, I don't really don't _care_ what mom says. She should just let me be, I'm an adult."

"You're 19."

"Which means I'm an adult to you, shorty," I spoke as I turned to face my partner. "Now, let's work on those barriers," the rosy-eyed pokemon nodded, shifting her arms in front of her body.

Trine still continued to talk as she observed my training with Gardevoir, "momma said no lady is an adult until she's married."

I with an angered grunt, I gave a heavy punch in towards my partner's white face, "Well that'd be mom's opinion. When you get older, you'll realize you have an opinion too. _Despite_ what mom'll tell you." My fist soon crashed into a flickering pink shield, giving a translucent cover to Gardevoir. My elbow bent in further to push even more strength into my attack.

Gardevoir's eyes were holding an uncertainty just before her barrier shattered, letting my attack make it in and brush her forehead. I held enough control to keep my punch from damaging her as I retracted my attack.

"Why are you always training, TorTor?"

"Reasons."

My sister's heavy sigh was all she could muster as her Natu fluttered its tiny wings over to us. Clasped in its golden beak was a small parchment of paper. Once the tiny bird landed on Trine's shoulder, she took the paper and gave an affectionate pat to the little guy. Her eyes scanned it before she looked to me, "There is a ranger on his way to town. Momma wants us to come back and help the greeting party."

My eyes lit up at the word of ranger, "Mom say anything else in the letter? Like why he's coming into town?"

My mind raced with the options. It could be a mission, but we haven't have any problems nearby in a while. _It is that time of the year, though, it could be..._

"Recruit scouting."

 _It is._

"You work on the welcome party, I have to get ready," I nodded to Gardevoir who gave the subtlest smirk of excitement. She, Trine and I started to make our way back to the town, weaving between the thickets of woods.

Trine stared up to be in silence just before we reached the edge of town, "You're trying out, again?"

I looked back at her, blinking my golden eyes, "Of course I am. Why wouldn't I?"

"Momma said it's not becoming for a lady to keep trying out for a man's position," she said, her Natu pecking at her dark green curls, "and they haven't accepted you the years before. What makes it different now?" her last half of her words seemed more sorrowful than condescending as we marched into our city.

The city was not large, but it was one of the 18 cities that resided on Ordell's border. The one where I had been born and raised was the village of Delic, where we work alongside psychic types. Delic is one of the few cities in the Region built on top of ruins. An ancient civilization once did reside in Ordell, but much of their history was lost when a natural disaster shook our small country to pieces. Many come up with fairytales that depict those old days, but they are all merely fiction.

The ruins Delic were settled on weren't elaborate like a crumbling castle or ancient tombs. They were basic. Bare standings of stone in old home-like shapes, but are forgotten of any other meaning. Our wooden homes have been constructed between these crumbled foundations. We have more homes than anything, but we also have a small store of general items and a healing hut. A healing hut has basic medications and technology for both people and pokemon, from colds to infected cuts.

In the heart of our village is the largest building, a shrine of sorts. There in that large wooden tower is the Mind Plate. It is a blessed slate which we hail as a connection to the Holy Spirit Arceus. To me, it's just a piece of rectangular metal with a purpleish tint. Most all cities in Ordell have a plate as such, it's also a representation of the "separate-but-untied" idealism of our country.

It was at this shrine-like tower where many of our people gathered, men of ranging ages lined up like soldiers with their pokemon partners behind or at their feet. Mothers and wives of these men would be brushing at their clothes to make them seem presentable or slick the men's hair back. Other women were cleaning the area and putting up a humungous "Welcome Ranger!" sign. Most of the people were wearing brown or grey clothes but moved with a delighted purpose in their step.

Trine scampered off somewhere to either help mom or play with the other children her age, leaving me and Gardevoir to take our place at the far end of the shoulder-to-shoulder line. Eyes tracked me with scorn, but I brushed it off as I filled my lungs up with air to push out my chest proudly. I stood taller than most of the men there, my six-foot stature on the slight intimidating side.

"Again?"

"Blame the parents, they didn't teach her right."

"She's marrying age, she should stop this nonsense."

"Does she actually think she'll make it?"

"That's a man's job."

"It's not like she has any real skills though as a potential wife."

I swallowed down the voices that buzzed around, knowing that gossiping is what they know. Gardevoir took a spot right at my side, our hands grazing one another before grasping like scared children. No man nor I in the line spoke, just stood as best as we could to represent our village. My mother passed by, her greying emerald hair fell into her face as the woman looked to me with a mixture of disappointment and anger. She knew though after four, now five, years she couldn't stop me.

It didn't take long to see a figure breaking through the entrance of Delic. It was a tall man, perhaps taller than me. He strode into Delic carrying himself boldly, my eyes catching that he was a different man than the last four years had shown.

Usually, it was Ranger Captain Ryker Thrax from the Beata Ranger Base. This man was very different. He seemed only maybe three or four years older than me but his hair was a natural silver with eyes to match. He was clad in the same ranger uniform throughout the region. A black and gold knight's tunic with a red cape draping over. The uniform was well-stretched across his muscle structure, like he had been wearing it for years.

His nickel eyes jumped to give notice to the banner before examining our line. He rose a thinly shaped eyebrow to me before clearing his throat, "I am not a man of formalities. But my job calls for it. So I'll be brief," his low voice was loudly projected across the town, leaving even the chittering women in silence, "My name is Gael Tiberius, the one responsible for recruiting potential rangers from the Beata Area of Ordell. I am the Base Captain at the Beata Ranger Base. Our last captain has received a promotion and is now currently working in the Capital, Auranus. The capital is also where the ones I recruit from here will be relocating to for training. If I recruit anyone," his last words seemed glazed with ice as he stared at each one of us.

He confidently walked up to the first at the opposite end of the line from me, "Please state your full name, age, partner pokemon and specialty. I don't want any 'my family-this' or 'my ancestors-that' or backstory shit. Now go!"

"My name is Alfred Lucas, I am 14 years old, my partner is Wynut and my specialty is scavenging."

"My name is Luis Jameson. 15 years of age. Partner: Meditite. My specialty is stealth."

"The name is..."

And so the usual nervous bellows of introductions came. Occasionally, the ranger would ask more questions but it was usually very brief before the next one came. Then I was the only one left.

"My name is Tora Chael and I am 19 years old. My partner pokemon is Gardevoir and our specialties are barriers and hand-to-hand combat." My shoulders were rolled back as I stared blankly past the man who stood in front of me with an unimpressed expression.

He drew in closer to me, "I'm not the operator recruiter, and I hope you are aware of that."

"Very much, sir."

"Why are you here, Ms. Chael?"

"To become a ranger and protect the people myself. Plain and simple."

It was sudden as his balled up fist came swinging around from the left. I quickly moved to catch his incoming hand, it hurt but I was able to halt the attack. Gael Tiberius gave me a taunting smirk, cueing me to continue and fight. So I did, lunging with my open hand at his stomach. He and I sparred quickly, catching one another's punches or ducking around. But he was able to find an opening, elbowing me in the left ribs where Gardevoir had struck earlier. I let out a hollow cough as the both of us rose back to resume soldier stance, "So you are indeed trained in hand-to-hand combat. But you could use a lot work."

"I'm self-taught sir," I hissed bitterly, "There is much for me to learn."

A ghostly smile hinted at his expression as he walked back up to the head of the group. His face then twitched back to seldom irritation, "You are a pathetic bunch. I can't tolerate the idea of sending even two of you to the capital to represent- Delic, was it?"

Many of the boys beside me shuttered and shrunk with shame. I kept my composure and held my line of sight at Gael Tiberius.

"So I will send one of you. The top two people here will participate in a small competition tomorrow morning to decide who shall go to Auranus and train with the best," the ranger looked over us all with contemplation before he announced the names, "Flynn Lawrence and Tora Chael."

That just about killed the entire village.

The silence was cutting, but nothing could break the sudden hope that swelled up in me.

The town carried on as usual after that, a few hard glares now and then, but many of them probably doubted that I would actually make it in the morning. My family approached me in the line, like all other families were to their sons, and my mom grabbed my shoulder. She didn't say a word of congratulations or anything really before she started to drag me through Delic. She walked briskly, our family tailing behind. I was able to look over her head, she was a short woman.

Once we arrived home, my mom ushered Trine, dad and me in quickly before slamming our door shut. Her back was pressed against the wooden door for a few moments, the rest of the family staring at her as if waiting for something, "Do you know how _embarrassing_ that was?" she finally uttered.

"I'm actually pretty proud," I responded quickly, watching my father cringe as I talked back.

He quickly jumped to grab my sister and mom, "How about you two get dinner ready? Tora and I can have a talk."

My mom took a deep breath, her shoulders rolling back, "No, Tora will come make dinner with Trinity and me," her false smile drew finely across her face as she looked to my father. "You've had a long day of work. Go and relax."

There was a dead air around us as us three ladies buzzed around the kitchen to make a nice dinner. Mom occasionally would show Trine something like how to properly chop carrots or boil vegetables at some temperature. Then she'd send Trine to set the table. Leaving me to dish out the four servings and carry them out to the dining table.

Our dining room was relatively small, part of the same room as our living room. It was just beside our staircase, the oval-shaped oak table was always draped with a nice white table cloth with a life-flame chandelure hanging above. We had a modest centerpiece on the table, a crystal vase with wilting roses. Hanging on the wall was a large family painting, just askew of being straight. No matter how mom or dad tried to fix it, the portrait is always crooked.

The four of us sat the table quietly. Mom and dad at each head, my sister and I across from one another- picking at our food awkwardly. The only sound was the flickering flames above and a dulling buzz of people outside. But of course, mom would be the one striking such interesting conversation.

"I see you tore your dress again."

"Yeah."

"Are you planning to fix it," she hissed in a form of a statement than a question.

I stabbed at my steamed vegetables without tearing my gaze from the greens, "Actually, I was planning to cut the dress above my knees so I can fight easier."

My mom inhaled sharply at the _atrocious_ idea of having my dress so far above my ankles, "Tora."

You should have seen her when I cut my hair to my chin, I swore she was having a heart attack.

I looked up to her with a gentle smile, "Yes mom?"

"Please, just stop this."

"Stop what?"

"You know what I'm talking about," the woman snapped, shooting a piercing glare at me. "It was cute when you were a little girl, but you are an adult now."

I let my silver fork drop to my plate with a clatter, "Exactly. I'm an adult now, so just let my life be."

"And whose roof are you living under? Your father's. So you will follow what he and I say."

Spinning my head towards my father, I asked, "Well dad, what's your opinion on this? It is _your_ house after all."

My dad was in the midst of swallowing a mouth full of our dinner as he started to speak with his mouth full, "I shink dat yo madher is wight," gulping down what sloshed in his mouth, he continued. "This soldier-game is getting old. Your prime is passing."

" _Prime?_ Prime what?" I started to interrogate my family, Trine shrinking back from the harsh tone. "The prime age for me to get married? Why's that all I hear? Why's that all I have to live for? I am sick of this idea that all I am is your daughter waiting to become some man's prize one day-"

"Tora, that's not what you are!" my mom argued.

"Than what am I?" I shot up from the table, my chair flying back to hit the wall. "Can you answer that? Can you?"

Everyone just stared at me, like I was supposed to know and not them.

"I have to train for tomorrow," I dismissed heavily, already making my way to the door.

"Tora, your dishes!"

I didn't care enough to even answer my mom who called after me. I swung the door with a heavy slam, sending the house off with a slight tremble. Sitting at the door like a guard was Gardevoir, giving me a sympathetic look. I ruffled her lime head of hair as our silent signal to go and train. She rose gracefully and followed me out of the village to our usual training clearing in the woods. The full moon above us made the white on my partner practically glowed.

Her steady gaze held with mine, "We left off on barriers right? You're getting better, but they are still able to be broken by me. We are going to work on blocking incoming objects. I'll be tossing various rocks at you. My speed will steadily grow, you either have to move your shield faster, make it bigger or get hit. Ready?"

She nodded with uncertainty, but we had to get better somehow. So I walked over about ten paces from her to a rock pile I'd set up a few days ago. Picking up at the stone, I swung them every ten seconds. Gardevoir easily created a platter-sized barrier in front of her hand and used it to block the few stones I threw. I cranked it up to every eight seconds, she was still able to deflect the rocks with ease. Making it to five, she still seemed to be holding strong. When it turned every three seconds, she created another shield with her open hand and moved them back and forth to redirect what I threw at her. But when it became every second, the rocks impacted her in the head. In the hip. At the shoulder. In the stomach. In the knee. She struggled and tripped over herself to deflect the rocks with her small hand-shields.

"You have to expand the shield, Gardevoir," I told her as I ran low on my rock pile. Her hands fit together and tried to stretch the psychic power that protected her. My last stone was aimed right between her eyes which flashed with panic. The barrier was joined but shattered into pieces when the stone smashed into it. The broken pieces sparkled in the night's faint light before fizzling off into nothing. The rock banged into my partner's head, causing her to crumple over in pain. I quickly ran over to where she shuttered, apologizing as I examined the growing bump on the pokemon's head.

"So when you said barriers where one of your specialties, you meant you were still learning."

Both Gardevoir and I looked to where the voice came from, my shoulders curling in anticipation for a fight. The Ranger was walking into the clearing, appearing calm, his silver hair reflecting the moonlight so brightly, it hurt to look at him, "Well, we can create barriers, which is something most pokemon partners in Delic can't do."

"So I've seen," he said, leaning up against a tree at the edge of a clearing. My partner and I stared at him expecting him to say more. But the three of us just held a staring contest, "Oh, go on with your training. Ignore me."

I grunted in answer and turned back to my partner. "Well, let's do hand-to-hand combat but you fight defensively while I fight offensively," rubbing her wound slightly, Gardevoir nodded as she created her palm-barriers. And we were off, my punches rolling at her as she either swerved or pushed my fist away with her shields. At times, her barriers would push my arm down to my waist. I would move with it and try to sweep her. She came crashing to the ground but caught herself, the barriers refusing to let her hit the ground as she rose back up.

"So, why are you training? Your opponent isn't. He seems confident that he'll beat you. You worried?"

"You know, it's hard to ignore someone who talks. Gardevoir, switch to offensive," I stated as I crossed my arms into an X when her closed fist came crashing against the center. "I'm not worried. But I'm determined to make it."

Gardevoir's onslaught of headshots started to push me back, "Why are you so determined to become a ranger?"

"I told you earlier, to protect people and pokemon," Gardevoir swung her left leg around for a roundhouse kick. I tried to dodge but it still came into my temple, causing me to let out a hiss of pain.

"That's what you do. Not why you do it," the silver-eyed man said from behind with a growing irritation. "So why's it you keep trying to become stronger? Why do you keep training to become a guard?"

Cradling the left side of my head with my right palm, I blocked the attacks that Gardevoir continued to throw with my left arm, "Ever occur to you that maybe I just want to get out of here? Away from this place?"

Gardevoir smirked as she jabbed her elbow into my left ribs, her back to me as she knocked her head into my nose. "You wouldn't be the first. But there's usually more to it," from the looks of it, the ranger was trying to swallow a temper as he forced each word out.

"Time-out," I called to my partner who was powering up another heavy strike. The psychic-type relaxed her muscles and watched as I rubbed off my injuries. I faced the man who persisted to interrogate me. "Gael, was it? Well of course there is. But why would I share it?"

The man's eyebrows furrowed with anger but he just stared.

I let out a sigh, still keeping my straight posture as I looked at him, "When I was child, I read all those fairytales about the heroes who slew the Dragonite and saved the kingdom and giving everyone a happy ending. And," I looked over to where my Gardevoir stood and kept my stare away, "I wanted to be just like them. Be able to save others and create a happy ending for at least someone."

"Now see? That's a reason," I shot my head towards the man who walked with his back towards me, giving a subtle wave. "Training is good, but sleep's needed. Oh, and your left side's completely open for most attacks. See ya' in the morning."

His figure was quickly engulfed by the stretching shadows of the forest as he most likely went to return back to Delic. Slightly turning to my partner, I smiled softly, "Your choice. Stay up and train or go and rest."

Her fuchsia eyes said all they needed and I nodded to her as we found our own way back to the village.

The next morning had such a clean light beating down on us that looking up to the open sky stung. I stood in the center of town, shoulder to shoulder with Flynn Lawrence. Gardevoir crossed her body in front of me as his Hypno stood at its master's hand. The town crowded around us like pokemon in a zoo.

Gael Tiberius stood before us, both his hands wrapped behind him. "Good morning, Delic," his voice shook the clearing and left the air reverberating. "Today we find which of these two will go to Auranus and be trained to become a Pokemon Ranger and join The Guard. Our competition will begin in moments, but I would first like to share a piece of news."

Many around clung to the loud words he projected, especially Flynn and I.

"There is apparently an Exploud making its way from the river to the West of here. It is destroying everything in its path," his words calmly flooded from his mouth, almost too calm from how he'd been earlier. Especially for a situation as such.

The village of Delic soon became filled with commotion, people calling to The Ranger to go and capture the Exploud. People starting to usher the youngest children into their homes. Flynn was already making a break for it towards his house.

But to me, it didn't make any sense.

 _Why would he tell us something just before our competition?_

 _Why throw the town into commotion?_

But then it clicked. My feet pounded against the dry earth, kicking up plumes of dirt as I followed the main path out of town.

"Tora! Where are you going?" my mom screamed from behind me.

Gardevoir was on my tail, her expression saying she'd figured it out also. I turned my head over and said, "Get Trine and yourself to safety, mom! I'll be back!"

"Don't tell me you're going to fight it! Get back here, it's dangerous!"

My stamina struggled to keep up the long amount of running I endured. My navigation skills kicking in as I spun around the Aspen and Elm trees that littered our woods. My nose twitched as I could smell the swift running water against stone in the distance. I have a nod to Gardevoir who readied herself for a fight.

I could pick up the growing sound of a river tossing over rocks and great shouting. The dust around my broke off into the air as I skidded to a halt upon seeing the monster.

It swung its huge head around to face me, what looked like pipe organs sprouted from its purple skull with gold loops wrapping around them. It was extremely bulky and most of its body was taken up by its amplifier-sized mouth. Curved Hippowdon teeth poked down from its gaping mouth. Its ruby eyes stared at me crookedly before snapping from its daze. The Exploud let out a spine crackling bellow towards me as its drum-stick arms curled down as its two thick pipe-organ tails flicked behind it.

The roar sent small pokemon scampering away as fast as they could. My eyes scavenged around me for any sort of weapon. I took off without much of a plan, which was bad.

It shot another shout to us, letting my ears ring for a moment. I filled up my lungs with as much air as they could hold while I crossed my arms into an X in front of me. And I let all the air out, "Stop your attacks, Exploud! You're gaining nothing!"

It stomped a gargantuan foot closer to me, roaring even louder than before.

"Don't come one step closer to my home!"

The large creature ignored my shouts as it came swinging at me with a violent shout. Its arm threw me to the ground and continued to push me farther back with kicks and shoves. I coughed out the dust that filled my lungs and the impact. My left shoulder throbbed as I started to struggle back to my feet. But the Exploud towered over me, his arms prepared to give a KO-ing strike. I flew up my arms in guard as it shouted.

"Voir!"

The impact didn't happen. I looked up to see Gardevoir standing above me, a wide barrier pushing against the force-pushing arm of our opponent. She tilted to her head to me slightly, giving an encouraging smile from the corner of her mouth. A burning smile pulled across my face as I glanced around. I was under a dead Elm tree. Leaping up, I snapped off a branch as long as my arm and as thick as my leg. I firmly gripped the stick with both hands.

"Gardevoir, move!" I shouted. The psychic type revolved around where I stood, leaving the monster and me face to face. It cocked its angered eyes at me before wildly swinging its arms around. Each of its heavy hits was blocked by my attack. I was soon making my own swings left and right, pushing it farther back.

"You!"

"Need!"

"To!"

"Calm!"

"Down!"

Gardevoir joined at my left side, covering my vulnerability with her barriers. It was only a few moments until we had the creature tottering on the edge. It was then when I lowered my club and looked dead into the Exploud's eyes, "Are you finished?"

It seemed in contemplation before the stream gave an extra pulse of water, the river giving a powerful lap at the loose stones that held Exploud's balance. The normal-type's eyes expanded with a wild fear. I impulsively shot out both my arms to grab one of its abnormally large hands, " _Ehx_ _!_ " it shouted, grabbling its other hand to my arm. I let out a shriek of pain as I tried to keep the strength that held us both on safety. But it was wearing thinner with each passing second.

 _Gardevoir can only teleport one person short distances at a time right now. Her psychic powers haven't been honed far enough to move us both and her barriers are useless now._ I thought to myself as the fleeting options raced through.

"Gardevoir," I managed to strangle out as sweat beaded down my neck, "take ahold of Exploud's arm and teleport a few feet over there where it is safe."

"Garde-" she tried protesting before I cut her off.

"That was an order!"

The embrace pokemon reluctantly snapped her thin white hand over Exploud's mitten ones, fizzling the both of them away. And like when one side of tug-a-war drops the rope, the other comes flying forward.

"Gottcha," an arm wrapped itself around my waist, reeling be back from face planting a river. "We can't have our newest ranger recruit getting swept away by the river," the voice set me back over to the steady land where I stumbled around weakly, nearly tripping over my tattered dress.

"I passed the test?" I was facing away from the river and looking down to where I had come, seeing the entire town with slack-jawed expressions, "You came to the danger? How much of an idiot is my own town?"

A little green-head pushed through the rows of people, "TorTor!" Trine scampered over to me, diving her face into my stomach as she strangled me in a hug, "That. Was. Amazing! The Ranger told us that it wasn't actually dangerous to the town after you ran out and we ran out to check on you! None of us imagined that! I'm happy you're okay!"

I let out a choked cough, ruffling my kid-sister's head of hair messily, "When am I not okay?"

Her head shot up to face me with a starry-eyed sadness, "Will you really be going away to become a ranger? I'm gonna miss you."

I knelt down to her height and carefully pulling her ever-curling hair behind the young girl's ear. "Remember when I read you stories before bed? How the hero in all the fairytales seizes the opportunities to become a hero at all? Well, this is my opportunity. And I'm going to jump up and grab it while I can. And when you see yours, don't hesitate to leap," she nodded, running back to where mom stood.

The town which once despised my outspoken protests so I could become a ranger now looked at me with a mutual respect. Still holding their ever silence.

I turned to where Gael Tiberius waited at the riverside with the Exploud towering next to him, "Thanks for saving me from falling back there."

"It's my job," he answered with a sly smile at his lips. "But thank you for saving my partner from falling into the river."

"Exploud is your partner? You know what, that's not very surprising."

"What is that supposed to mean?" the silver-haired man's nose twitched with irritation, his low voice echoing through where we stood. Shaking his head from what I said, he asked, "So you figured out that Exploud was the test?"

"Why else would you send a town into utter chaos and not do anything?"

"For fun?"

I rose an eyebrow at him. His face mirroring mine. I let out a laugh, breaking my serious disposition, "So I passed?"

He nodded, tossing over a small red object in my direction. My hands stumbled over each other to capture it, "Yep. That in your hands is your very own capture styler. You won't be using it for a while, but once you arrive in Auranus, look for The Academy there. Present your styler and to the people there and you're in."

I gave a small sign of understanding.

"Good luck there, I hope to see you in the field one day."

I turned my head to Gardevoir who I gave a burning beam to. She returned it. We took a few hours back home to pack for the three-day trip. Mom constantly nagged me to stay but I ignored her. And then my partner and I set out, ready for what had to come at us with a bag of food and camping supplies and a ruby red styler.

On the trail, there was only one thing I could think about.

I was finally going to be a Pokemon Ranger.

 **A/N: So yeah, this was probably a tad confusing. This is a completely OC book again and will be confusing until I explain what's going on. I will be soon! Just give me time because I am trying to do this "slowing down" thing when giving information instead of dropping it all on you at once. Thank you for baring with me!**

 **-Avalon R. Day**


	3. Chapter 2

Traveling on my own was one of the most amazing feelings I'd ever felt. I felt free and independent for once. But there was a problem with traveling to Auranus.

I had no clue how to get there.

It was basic directions and pointing on a map. Just go in a straight, diagonal line South-West of Delic.

But you see, trees and mountains don't exactly create straight paths. More like, up and down, left and right, circles, triangle, roundabouts and such. Which was extremely taxing on both Gardevoir and me. We had made it out of the forestry by now, surrounded by stone grey slates and rocks of the inclining mountains. Sweat was clinging to my skin like a thick film as I take a sip from my water bottle, a few stray droplets pouring down my chin. Slowly, I handed off the remainders of water to my partner who skillfully sipped the rest of it down flawlessly. She hands back the empty bottle and I slide it into a side pocket of my bag, looking out to the sky of endless ribboned clouds floating below. A broken-egg setting sun melted down below the horizon of clouds, melting away.

"I was told to follow the river to Auranus," I began ranting to my partner who had heard this a million times on our journey. "But not the main river because it would take me too far south. No, follow the main river until it splits off. Follow the spit off to the right and then go to the next split off. Stay right. Then to the next split off. This time go _left_! We did that, didn't we?" I inquired, asking over to my psychic partner.

She gave a slight nod with a sigh.

I threw up my arms, "We followed the directions and then the river ran off and away! Where do we go now? We've been scaling this mountain for three _hours_ now without a sight of water or trees or any landmarks but giant rocks!" I huffed out, crossing my arms. I stole another glance at the sky and saw the stars starting to drip in as the sun fizzled away. "We need to find shelter soon for the night. And we have nothing."

Gardevoir put her narrow hand on my shoulder, giving me a tilted look of encouragement.

I forced her a smile, shivering slightly as a chill set in and admitted, "I just don't know what to do." My partner nodded and we continued walking, my eyes scanned for a possible Ranger Depot being located out here. But none came into view our entire trip. Finally, when the light was almost completely dissipated, Gardevoir and I found a cave in the side of our mountain. It wasn't very deep, more like a divot, but it would fit the psychic pokemon and me for the night.

She and I snuck into the small opening and huddled in, shoulder to shoulder. Gardevoir let some sticks she had gathered on our travel roll onto the small amount of ground in front of us. I let my backpack drop beside me and I unzipped it, searching for my flint-n-steel. Once I found it, barely any light was making it to my eyes. So I carefully started to scrape the steel against the flint stone quickly, getting some sparks started. Finally they caught on some underbrush we threw under our sticks, giving off slight smoke. Putting my fire-starter away, I bent over and started to blow onto the smoldering smoke, catching the flame.

The small tendrils of smoke rose up, starting to flood out from out little hobbit hole. I fished out a small package gelatin-like blocks with the print written across the bag saying: "Sate Bloxs". I tore it open and tossed a couple to Gardevoir, who caught them in her mouth. I poured the rest of the bag into my hand, taking a small gulp as I looked at these. Sate Bloxs were the panicle of Ordell creations. It was a mixture of Cherubi extract (not actual Cherubi, but the nutrition in their second cherry is extracted), Tropius fruit, Miltank milk, Slowpoke tail and many more strange things to create the perfect meal creation. Small blocks that replace the need to make a full course meal that satiates all of an average person's dietary needs. A "Staple" food for both people and pokemon.

But they taste foul.

Wrinkling my nose up, I dropped my handful down my throat and swallowed them as quickly as I could without tasting them. My spine shivered as I forced it down my throat, its indescribable taste still able to cause a slight gag reflex before finally being in the pit of my stomach. Gardevoir beside me had begun nodding off, her head slipping to rest on the cave wall with her legs tucked into the red diamond on her chest. I smiled at the psychic type slightly before looking out from our cave hole.

I could still see the horizon, the trillions of stars fighting over who would shine the brightest that night. I opened back up my bag and pulled out the Styler. _My_ styler. Carefully, I clasped it to my right arm, just close to my wrist like how I've seen other rangers wear it. Balling up a small puff in my dress's skirt, I started to shine the red piece of technology from any sort of dust it could gather. In the blistering glow that kept Gardevoir and me slightly warm in the mountain night, I held up the styler with a smile. The flames gave off a reflecting shine that showed my smile back at me in the painted metal.

I worked so hard to get this. Ever since I was a kid. My eyes shut as I thought about my training. How much time I spent running off into the woods so I could become stronger. It didn't sting that much when I thought about the time I'd missed out on with my town. Sure, I could have had closer relationships with the people there if I was the "ideal" girl. But I wouldn't have been true to myself. I could've spent more time with my mother and father. But I would've put myself through endless lectures on how to be even more "perfect".

But through all of my time in Delic, I wasn't alone. I had one person. My sister, Trine. Well, her full name is Trinity Rose Chael. She very much clung to mom and dad's every word, but somehow, she always found her way to watch me train with sorts of wonderment in her almost white eyes. And if you could see her face when she listened to me read her fairytales, Arceus himself would have smiled too. Trine may be nine, but she still behaves like a child.

Well, she still is one, isn't she?

I loved my sister. So much that I was afraid about how she'd to end up when she grew up, _Will she be forced to marry off and be the perfect house wife, like mom? If so, will she be truly in love with the man she marries? And if she tries to be like me, will she be strong enough?_ I laughed off my worries slightly and leaned back against the cave wall as my eyes slowly shut. _Who knows, maybe she'll find a different path all together. One that no one saw coming._

Sleep came slowly, but peacefully.

The next few days of travel were difficult, mostly mountain scaling. Gardevoir and I worked separately to always get us some sort of shelter before the sun went in. Travel was so slow, I nearly lost track of the day.

I had six days from the night I left to the morning of orientation at 10AM.

It was a bright a squirrelly morning at 5AM of the sixth day where I jolted up from my sleep, having a nightmare of being late. Don't underestimate those dreams, they're terrifying. My eyes flew across the orange bleeding horizon as the morning frost still clung to my hair.

That night Gardevoir and I couldn't find any safe shelter and had snuggled close together wrapped in my sleeping bag beside our, now dying, fire. I leapt up and already began to smother the embers with my shoe, "Gardevoir! Up, up! We only have five hours to make it to Auranus, find the Ranger Academy and I still have no clue if we are miles away!"

Gardevoir moved in motion to my words, practicing her psychic powers to roll up my sleeping bag. I looked down at myself and knew my tattered grey dress would not cut it for the capital. I rummaged through my bag for my spare dress. I bit my lip, wondering when I found it if I should just cut short.

 _No, don't do it._ A voice said in the back of my head. No reason whatsoever, but I trusted it and quickly changed. It was a simple indigo dress. No pattern or shape as it was like putting on a bag down to my toes. The shoulders puffed out slightly, leaving my arms revealed. I let out a shiver as I slipped over my dad's black jacket. I ran a hand through my green hair, flipping my bag onto my back, as I looked to Gardevoir, "Ready?"

She nodded and the two of us set out at a quick speedwalk, running if it was flat enough.

And sure enough, we weren't lost. Well, not really. Soon we came to a main path in the mountains, a wooden sign stating that that the capital, Auranus, was just some odd fraction of a mile that way. I took a bite at my lip, examining how the shadows fell to figure out the time. It was between nine and ten in the morning. So Gardevoir and I hightailed it forward.

I barely noticed that even though we were climbing higher, more vegetation was growing in. We came to stone steps that were almost white, ivy climbing in between the stone cracks. A river was trickling down beside the staircase. A smile spread further across my face as I started to leave Gardevoir behind from my speed. Leaping into the clearing of the city, my jaw dropped further and further. I could barely breathe as I stared at this city.

I'd never seen anything like it.

The city of Auranus felt like it came out of the fairytales with golden roofed homes in shapes of cylinders of beautifully cut stone. Though some buildings were constructed in the generic box, but the stone that constructed them spun into glorious pictures and designs. Many of the buildings where nestled into the mountain sides or beside them, still making room for linear walkways. From where I ran up, I thought I was standing in a main road, three Rapidashes wide, with white stones that made it up filtered further into the city. The capital itself was almost split in pieces by the other rising mountain rises. But what kept it together were long arched bridges that sparkled in the morning light. Just below the arcs were small waterfalls spitting down the mountain sides into thick rivers far below. On each side of the bridges were very large, very important looking, complexes of hundreds of homes and shops. From where I stood, it was mainly homes around. But across the Arc closest had awnings striped gold and maroon and tent-like roofing poking out. The market district probably.

The people who walked around were no joke either. The men wore beautifully made suits and the women's long cream dresses were imbued with ruffles and bows. Compared to all of them, I felt like a post. I started walking through, Gardevoir finally catching up and absorbing the view on the move. I passed by a clock stand that read 9:47 when I learned that I, in fact, did not enter from a main road. It was one of many side passes. The main road seemed larger than Delic itself as odd machines I'd only heard about clanked down them. Cars. All of them were very box like with bug-type sized eyes. They crossed over the large bridges, most centered to move into what looked like the main island.

But one of the most fascinating part of the capital was that there was no one-type partner pokemon. Everyone around carried on their day with sorts of pokemon I've never seen. Even some dragon types! In Delic and around, I've only ever seen psychic, or at least part psychic, type pokemon. It was all so diverse in pokemon. Though here, most of the people were the generic cream color. Somewhat tan, but not.

Though I had to snap myself from the spell cast on me by the city, realizing I had to find the "Guard Academy" quickly. I swallowed my intimidation and started to ask around to the people who walked down the sidewalks, "Excuse me, I'm new and-"

"I'm busy."

"Can someone give me directions to-"

"Can't talk right now."

"I just need to know where I even am-"

"Sorry, did you say something?"

The more I asked, the more people cut me off or blatenly even just walked past me as if I was just a Vulbeat buzzing by. Gardevoir even tried to get attention, but even she melted away into the bustling city.

Finally, I snapped. I stomped my foot and shouted, "I just need some directions!"

Barely anyone flinched, some people leaning over to gossip, "Who raised her?"

"I don't know, but look at her."

"She must be from the Ridge Villages. She's not from here."

"Still, no lady should act out in such a manner."

"Gah!" I exasperated, resting my head against a stone building, "I just need to get to the Guard Academy."

I flinched as a delicate hand tapped me on the shoulder, I spun around to see a young teenage girl; she looked maybe thirteen. Her bubblegum-pink hair fell in waves down to her knees as her fair white skin reflected the sunlight. "Guard Academy?" Her high voice sung, slightly coarse with—I wasn't sure. "You're going there too?"

I nodded to the blue eyed girl, already pegging her to be an Operator. She was wearing a long dress that was a sky blue down to her ankles. On her shoulder was a small looking bear poking through her hair with a head fur the same color as its owner's dress. From the bear's dark nose was what looked like icicle snot, which it sniffed up in a giant heave. Its white paws held up the strange creature from falling. _Water type?_ I wondered.

A gentle smile pulled at her face, glowing in the city, "Oh thank Arceus! I'm not the only one who got lost! I already asked around a bit... I kinda got really lost when I came in through the Lower districts. I found out that I ended up all the way across the city here in the middle districts an' that the Guard Academy is in the Center District, but where from there I have no clue! We can find it together, right?"

Her blubbering about being lost went through one ear and out the other, but she seemed to know, "Sure."

"Alright! The Center District's up this way! An' maybe we can find one of those maps that I heard Auranus has stationed around!" she grinned, walking off without me towards the largest of the bridges around. Gardevoir and I exchanged looks before quickly tailing the girl with the small bear. From behind, I could see the pokemon's cotton ball tail wagging back and forth, "Ah! I never introduced myself! I'm Alice Fallon, and this wittle-baby on my shoulder is Cubchoo. He's my partner. We're both from Chione, the ice-type Ridge Village."

As we crossed the long arcing bridge, I fought myself from looking how far it was as I spoke to Alice, "My name's Tora Chael," I nodded over to where Gardevoir walked. "That's my partner Gardevoir, and we're both from Delic. Psychic-type Ridge Village."

"Operator training?"

"Ranger."

She gasped, my shoulders already tensing for the "that's not lady-like" speech. But instead, I got something different.

"That. Is so. Cool!" She gushed, Cubchoo's eyes shining just like hers as the two stared at me, "There's only one other woman ranger in all of Ordell! If you can become another one that'd be even cooler! I wish I could too- but... Uh, complications came up." Alice's voice dimmed as we both made it into the Center District, as she called it. It was even larger than where I entered filled with even more people and buildings and pokemon. A large mountain though erupted out from the center of it all, bare of most buildings. But on four sides has thousands of steps climbing up to an abandon shrine that was glowing against the sun. Throught the city around had flags of the Alvar, Ordell's main governing heads and religion.

A map post was waiting for us right as we came off the bridge.

It depicted seven "islands" that were all connected with bridges. One large in the center, with six poking around like spokes on a wheel. Everything that was colored Yellow seemed to be a shopping or market district. There were two market districts, polar opposite of each other as spoke wheels. One labeled Lower Market and the other was the middle Market. The third shopping area was in the Center District. Then there were green housing, again opposite of one another. One middle and one Lower. The Housing in the Center District was spread about around the only dark blue Medicine area and between the only chocolate brown work areas on the map. Then came the Education districts. Again, two polar opposite from one another in "island" locations. But in the Center District, it was circled around the Holy Ground/Temple which I assumed was the abandon shrine above.

"Guard School is probably in the Education District here," I stated as I turned to look at Alice, who was already running in that direction. I winced at her need to get going as I jumped behind her.

The small girl coughed as she ran slightly, "We've got to hurry! I bet the Orientation's already started! Man, I hate being late!"

We ran in a large circle to find Guard Academy, but soon it came into view. Both Alice and I stormed in, I flashed my styler and she flashed some electronic contraption with a bunch of plug-ins to the person at the doors as we sped down the halls. We didn't pay attention to anything there, just the signs that pointed "recruits =".

When we reached the final sign, we pushed through some large doors, giving light to an extremely large gymnasium. The stage lights above focused on a wooden stage built in there. The room itself was packed with maybe 2000 people varying in age and height, staring the people on stage.

Alice, our pokemon and I slipped in casually with the rest, watching the man who stood at a podium. His hair was blonde and slicked back. But he was far from young, his face pulling with wrinkles and a pair of bifocals sat on his bony nose, "Welcome Everyone to Guard Academy."

 _We just made it,_ I gave a breath of relief.

"My name is Otis Morrison. A member of the Alvar council and your temporary Principle until Mr. Pertinax finishes is business outside of the capital," he spoke calmly, his stony eyes revealing no hint of kindness. "To have been chosen to attend Guard Academy is more honorable than many of you may imagine. You will train harshly, under all sorts of situations. And maybe half of you will achieve becoming a Ranger or a Mechanic or an Operator. The others will be returning home if seen to underperform, with nothing to show for it."

I took in a shaken breath along with many others in the room at the thought of going home.

"You will have Four Classes a day, three full meals and will be boarding in a small housing area nearby. We ask you never to be late to our classes, it should reflect poorly on your overall performance. We have a few basic rules here also we ask you to kindly follow. One, we stand strongly against any form of fighting with each other. If you don't get along, sort it out. Do not hold petty squabbles that effect the rest of us. Both parties of this will be sent home immediately. Please also respect our staff members working here, many of them have traveled from around the region to train you."

He gave a motion to the tens of people who stood behind him. Mostly men, but a few women standing out.

"And respect the technology we train you with. That is all we ask," Mr. Morrison spoke calmly before transitioning to another subject. "Also, I am obligated to bring up one more notion. As you may know, many women here today have come to train and become a ranger. And a few years ago, one woman did."

At that mension, a redhead in the staff line pulled her shoulders back and puffed out her chest proudly. A man beside her was smiling down to the woman.

"Women also take up jobs as operators and mechanics. Very different than what many are used to," he looked as if he were choking back some words, or picking the next ones carefully. "So we ask that the boys and men here are ready to work beside a woman in work. Even on jobs, many civilian women will want to help you. And they must be treated like any other, in strength and all. Despite what they lack." A thick silence filled the air before a voice spoke up.

"Why should we?"

"Excuse me?" Mr. Morrison asked the voice in the ocean of people.

"Why do we have to work with women? They don't belong here."

"Why did anyone admit them?"

"They should be at home."

"I get Operator, but the rest is man's work."

"The only woman ranger slept her way to that position!"

"I heard that too!"

"Women who work aren't good!"

A small hand intertwined with mine. I flinched to notice Alice trembling beside me. At first, I thought she was scared. But I soon realized it was anger she was shaking with.

Mr. Morrison's face didn't flinch as he spoke into the microphone, "If you are not prepared to work alongside a women, we calmly ask you to leave now."

At first, it was motionless. Who'd give up an opportunity like this? Apparently, a lot. Slowly, men and boys turned on their feet and made their ways to the exit. Even girls who disapproved of women working as mechanics and rangers turned and left the room. The hand I held clenched even tighter, "I'll hurt them," Alice hissed, completely different than the babbling lost girl I met a few minutes ago.

The red-haired woman on stage dropped her shoulders, her mouth parting to say something. Though the man beside her with inky black hair dropped his hand onto her head softly. She looked to him sadly and dropped her head into his shoulder. He gently wrapped her into a hug as we watched the people leave, until maybe over half were left.

"If that is all," Mr. Morrison echoed in the microphone, "Classes start at noon. Pick up your schedules from the stationed offices. See you all in the future."

Alice's hand soon slipped away as she strode away in silence. Everyone else moved to do so. But I stayed for a few minutes longer.

Wondering why so many had such narrow views.


	4. Chapter 3

Guard Academy Class Schedule

Name: Tora W. Chael

Age: 19

Gender: F

Class 1: Operator Basics

Class 2: Operator Advance

Lunch

Class 3: Hands-on Operator skills

Class 4: Operator PE

My eyes reread each class assignment carefully. I knew we'd only be attending our first class today at noon before we go to our dorm assignments and "settle in". But even an idiot could see this schedule was wrong for me. Gardevoir leaned over my shoulder and shook her head, giving me a crooked look.

"I know it's wrong," I stated to her, "but what do we do? Find a teacher to talk them about it?"

My partner's pink eyes softened, averting in the direction of the main office. I nodded in understanding before her and I started back that way.

The school itself was like a castle estate. It had numerous court yards of mountain vegetation as the school built itself around those in boxes. Many classroom doors lead to and from the courtyards. Most halls had open arched windows that bled in the mountain air. Spindling towers reached to the skies with their pointed roofs. The tiled halls were scuffed by the many people who walked to and fro through them. The classrooms themselves though were completely modernized.

Once my partner and I arrived in the head office, it was scarily empty. Everyone had seemed to already have picked up their schedules and headed onto class without a second thought. The only person there was a hobbling old woman behind the main desk. Her dark grey hair was tied into a high bun to show off her pudged and wrinkling face. Her body was wrapped in a violet subtle-patterned komon. The wrap around her stomach being a creamy beige.

Cautiously, I approached the desk, "Excuse me ma'am. I have a problem with my schedule."

The old lady spun towards me, staring at me through squinted eyes, "Ah, young miss. You're polite, but I wrote up all the schedules myself for the women attending. I make no mistakes!" she smiled with a near condescending tone, chuckling slightly.

I gave a hallow laugh, "Well, writing many schedules, you're bound to make a mistake at some point!"

"Nope! I do my job flawlessly!" the old woman spoke, clapping her bony hands together proudly. Though she seemed irritated that I was telling her she made a mistake.

"Well, you see, I was recruited by a Gael Tiberius to become a Pokemon Ranger here at Guard Academy," the woman's back immediately stiffened as her soft face hardened as I pulled out my Ranger Styler. "My class schedule shows all Operator Classes."

Her upper lip twitched slightly. "And so it should! An Operator is your place. It was Mr. Tiberius who made the mistake, not me. So run off to your first class. You will realize that this is better for you," her graveling voice purred as she grabbed my styler from my hands.

"Hey!"

She quickly replaced it with a small contraption I saw Alice gripping earlier that day, "Here is a charger for Stylers, more fitting for you."

"With all due respect ma'am, this-"

"It's not ma'am," the elderly woman cut off with her ever-present smile. "It's _lady_. Lady Lily Quinones." She spoke with utter dignity, as if I were to know who she was.

"Lily Quinones, I've put up with your tradition crap long enough! But _this_ is the final straw, you manipulative hag!" A fiery redhead stormed into the office, the door slamming into the back wall. This woman seemed a few years older than me with a pair of golden eyes that seemed to be on fire. "You've got me teaching an _operator's_ class! That's just a load of Tauros shit!" The woman's head twitched to her shoulder a couple times with anger.

Lily Quinones sighed with her grin, "Ms. Knightly, please learn to respect your elders and refrain from using such foul language."

"I do, Lady. I just don't respect self-degrading women who cling to sexist, self-degrading tradition," the woman hissed, tossing her black cape up in anger.

The old woman's façade snapped as her face darkened, "Well I don't converse with such scandalous women as yourself."

"They're called pants! They're comfortable! Hag," The woman continued. And I did take note that the redhead wasn't wearing a dress like all other ladies do. She wore a pair of black and white pants that clung to her skin with gold lining, held to her waist with a white belt Leather boots stretched up to her knees. On top, she wore a skin tight crop top with full length arms. It was mostly white with red lining. The cape she wore even had feathers at the shoulders. "And yeah, I have a stomach. So does everyone else! At least I go out on dates! You sit around obsessed with your little job!"

"A woman as old as you shouldn't be going out on dates! You should be married and with child!"

"To hell with that fucking shit, you pathetic hag!"

 _So this is what a redhead's temper looks like_ , I thought as I cleared my throat. Both of them suddenly looked at me as if I just magically appeared, "There's still the problem with my schedule."

"There's a problem with my schedule too," The golden-eyed woman growled towards me. She turned back to Lily Quinones with a loathing in her expression, "I'm the only female ranger in all of Ordell and I'm stuck teaching Operator wannabees."

I was a bit baffled. The only woman pokemon ranger who stood in front of me, was shorter than by just under a foot. I imagined her to be taller.

"Well yes, but I've been placed in all Operator courses when I was recruited to be a Ranger," I dropped the charger back onto the desk and snapped back my beloved styler from Lily Quinones.

The Ranger's eyes almost sparkled as she looked at me, her temper softening before she looked back at the elderly lady, "I know you're part of the Alvar Council and all, but you have no right do this to every female ranger recruit that comes through! You did it to me, and now this poor lady! You _will_ fix her schedule." I don't know what, but for a minute, I saw Death overshadowing the woman Ranger.

It sent shivers down the old woman's spine as she snapped the schedule from my hands. She began to scratch the classes out and give her signature at the bottom, "I'm keeping you both in Operator Basics. Because when you back out of being a Ranger, you'll have the basics to fall back on. Plus, it's really just the same basics all Guard Recruits go through. Ranger, Operator or Mechanic. Only difference is how the workings of the Stylers and other machines are taught." She handed the paper back to me and I smiled.

Guard Academy Class Schedule

Name: Tora W. Chael

Age: 19

Gender: F

Class 1: Operator basics

Class 2: Capture 101

Lunch

Class 3: Ranger Survival

Class 4: Ranger Advanced

"Fine," The Ranger woman hissed. She leaped up so she could wrap her arm around my shoulders, pulling me out of the Office. In height comparison, she seemed almost the exact same as Alice. But the ranger was much older looking. Maybe 22? Give or take. "Stick with me through school, kid. Lots of girls come through here to become rangers. All leaving due to bullying, discrimination and misplacement. Or they just can't handle it. You're lucky I stormed the office the same time you were there, you got yourself a Ranger who'll get you through this school. I guarantee your strength will get you through. You already passed the first test of getting the right schedule!"

"But you did that."

She sweatdropped slightly as we walked through the castle halls, "Then you'll have to prove your strength and skill to me throughout our time together. I'm even your teacher for your first class!" we made it to our class door, the ranger stopped. "You go on ahead. Don't want to be labeled teacher's pet the very first day of school. Plus I have stuff to prepare for class, now go on!" The ranger pushed me into the class room door, which pushed open. I stumbled into a college-like formatted classroom with rows going down and down from the door to a teacher's desk, a brand-new whiteboard shining with no sign of past writing.

 _The teacher's crazy already,_ I said to myself, _I never imagined the only female Ranger in Ordell's history was like that._

Most of the seats were filled with girls and women chittering like Pachirisu to one another. I looked around for a place to sit. My eyes caught a familiar icing-haired girl with a Cubchoo, being rejected from a seat by a blonde with hair down to her elbows. I silently slid into an aisle seat, Gardevoir sliding in the open spot next to me. We both smirked at one another, taking in a deep breath. Minutes passed in great numbers and the room grew even louder, leaving my partner and me to sit awkwardly wondering when the Ranger woman would come to teach.

"Good morning, ladies!" a voice sung unharmoniously as the back door flew open. All heads turned to see the Ranger woman with her arms thrown out as she rode an extremely large, extremely furry, dog with orange fur and black stripes. From the large mongrel's mouth came rolling flames that were flying all around as it tossed its head about proudly. The fire-hound leapt down through the class and to the teacher's desk with flames flying behind them both like a banner. Dismounting the fire-hound, the Ranger woman gave a loving ruffle of fur to it, "Good job, Arcanine. That was awesome. Definitely got their attention."

The class couldn't even blink as they stared at their teacher.

The redhead placed a hand on her hip with sass, "Introduction time! My name's Phoenix Knightly, you'll call me Ms. Knightly. This is my partner Arcanine," she motioned to the fire dog who started kicking under its front leg, "and welcome to Operator Basics! I'm a Pokemon Ranger, teaching an Operators class. And I'm not bitter about it in the _least_... Anyways, treat me well. We'll be going over some basic shit about how Ordell and the Guard work. Lesson one, 'the Guard' Refers to all Rangers, Operators and Mechanics in Ordell. Just thought you all should know."

"Um, Ms. Knightly, are teachers _allowed_ to swear?" a girl in the class stuttered.

The pale Ranger laughed loudly, "Probably not! But I'm still really pissed about not teaching a ranger's course. Nothing against all of you, or anything." Ms. Knightly flipped her hair and continued speaking, "Anyways. Today's the first day and all for only one class, most teachers are doing ice-breakers to get to know everyone. But not me! We are jumping right into our lessons! But I'll go easy on everyone here. We'll go over the basic history of Ordell and the reason the Guard and Alvar are currently functioning in it!"

Before the lesson even started, a hand shot up.

"Questions! I love it! Go ahead, blondie!"

"Yeah," The girl droned, "Why are we learning history? It's completely useless to what we're going to be doing at all."

"I hate your question," the teacher deadpanned at the girl with glasses. "History's extremely important to the people because it defines who they were once and who they are now. It's especially important here in Ordell since we are forgotten by the rest of the world. Someone has to remember us. And if the people of a country don't learn their own scarred history, they're doomed to repeat it once more."

"Repeat the class?"

"Never mind... Let's just carry on with our lesson," Ms. Knightly sighed heavily, pacing up to the front of the class. "It was an extremely long time ago, 689 years ago to be exact, when Ordell suffered an extremely powerful disaster. No one remembers exactly what it was, many speculate earthquakes. But some still believe it was caused by many powerful pokemon angered by the sole emperor who once ruled over Ordell. Back 789 years ago, our world was very different. We only had seven cities oddly scattered over our region, the capital located in the Broken Woods. All of these cities where wiped out, you can still see the ruins today in many locations. The shrine here in Auranus is actually the ruins of the past which have the old tales written in their stones. Continuing on, after the mass destruction across Auranus, the emperor was executed by the enraged people. The people of Ordell knew Emperor Burius had done nothing to help them and would never do so. It was also the people who decided to create The Alvar Council to function as a government and religion in one. But multiple people created a more equal balance of decision making for the region. The Alvar were the ones who created us, the Guard. An Elite group of civilians trained in combat, capture, electronics and more. The Guard enforces the Alvar's word and keep all of Ordell at peace. We stop natural disasters and raging pokemon so history no longer repeats itself. We formed the 19 cities across the region to represent unity and-"

That's about when the class bell of dismissal began to chime, all the girls shuffled out as if they weren't even paying attention to Ms. Knightly.

"Well, that's class. We'll talk more about all of those later," Ms. Knightly sighed, glancing to me in a sad plea asking if I even listened. "I knew I took too long preparing that entrance..."

Gardevoir and I rose, giving a sympathetic smile to the teacher, before exiting on our own to find the dorms nearby.

As much as I didn't want to disappoint Ms. Knightly, I never was interested in history.


	5. Chapter 4

Gardevoir stood beside me at the end of the hall. It was almost complete darkness from how no windows reached where she and I stood. The door had four silver plated numbers in the center of it reading: 2435. The 35th room on the fourth floor in the second dorm building.

There were two twin dorm buildings across from one another, just across from the Guard Academy and at the start of the housing area in the Center District of Auranus. The buildings themselves were four floors each and had 35 rooms each floor. Everyone had roommates. But the number varied from two to three people per roon, though I'm not sure how things like that were chosen. There was no real organization to who was with who by what, it all just fell where it would. Gardevoir and I ended up in the very last room at the end of the hall of the final floor.

I sucked in a big breath as I finally built up the courage to open up the door.

"Welcome to room Overflow," A nasally voice greeted as a light from the room's single window poured into the darkness I waited in with a single bag and my partner.

The room was very basic. Two bunk beds on each side of the window with a table in just below. Poking my head in, I saw a closet beside the door built into the wall that was wide open. Clothes pouring out like a waterfall, spilling into the rest of the room that I was to share.

A blonde in her teens stared at me with a slightly irritated smile as she pointed to a bundle of blankets on one of the top bunks, "Her mess, not mine. I swear, Ms. Dorm Adviser." The nasally blonde, after further examination, I realized was the same one who kicked Alice out of sitting next to her and objected to the history lesson in Ms. Knightly's class.

"Um... I'm a student," I replied flatly, walking in and trying not to imagine something attacking me from the mess.

My skin crawled as the bundle of blankets started to rustle, a pink-haired head popping out, "Tori!" it was Alice.

"What?"

"That's your name, right?"

"No, it's Tora."

Alice's big blue eyes widened as her lip quivered.

The blonde on the other hand seemed unfazed and chucked a small stuffed pokemon at Alice's face, "Good job, screw up." Alice caught the doll and placed it next to what seemed to be her pillow. Her small Cubchoo was on the floor, poking at a black furred creature standing on its hind legs. The clawed creature rose an eyebrow to the ice bear before giving it a slight pat on the head. Gardevoir made her way over to the two, starting some sort of poke-conversation, a sweatdrop running down my partner's faces as they both started chattering at her happily.

"That was mean," I said, throwing my bag onto an open bed.

The blue-eyed blonde cocked her head and genuinely said, "Was it?"

Alice was in a fight with her blankets to break free as she seemed to answer me, "Don't worry! Anya an' I met in class an' started getting along! She just acts like she likes everyone else an' not me!"

"Because you're a weirdo," probably-Anya said, flipping her blonde hair and smiling sweetly at me, "Anyways, the bathrooms are at the opposite end of the hall. We also are rooming with the door adviser because apparently she was a last minute assignee to this and couldn't get a real room for herself. So she's joining room overflow."

I took a seat on my lower bunk bed I'd chosen and looked to Anya who made her bed across from mine, "Two questions. One, how do you know all of that about our dorm adviser? Two, why do you call this room overflow?"

"A Pidgey flew to our window a few minutes ago with a note saying so about the dorm adviser!" Alice chimed in, finally free of her blankets. The rosy-haired girl was panting lightly with sweat dripping down her neck, "It also told us that we were all assigned together in the last room because they had no other room for us! Notice how most rooms have only two of three per room? Well we have four (including our dorm adviser). Sure there were other who're admitted late, but we were the latest of the late. And for lateness, it's a punishment. We actually have the smallest dorm room for the most people."

"That's... Great," I blinked slightly.

"Aren't you going to unpack?" Anya added in, eyeing my small pack.

"Well, I don't have too much," I replied, somewhat grateful we already had sheets on our beds. I had no clue how one side of the room became such a mess so easily and I dared not to ask. Anya just nodded in understanding as she lied down on her bed, closing her eyes in peace.

Oh, how she probably wished it would last. Our door flung open as a large, and familiar, fire-hound came prancing in with a short, and also familiar, redhead trailing behind, "Lily is so going down for this one... 'Oh, Stephan's dorm adviser for the boys! You should watch the girls' and turns out he isn't even being a teacher at the Academy! He's wormed out of it by taking up the position of librarian! Why couldn't I've done that? How can that old hag always trick me like this?" Ms. Knightly fumed as she stormed in. Though her gold eyes froze in mid-flame as she looked at the mess pouring from the closet. Then to the two blue-eyed girls. Then to the pokemon on the floor. Then to me. "Ranger girl! We're in the same dorm room?" she suddenly beamed to me.

I smiled awkwardly to the hyper-active ranger, "Yeah?"

"Hell ya! Now you'll definitely become the second woman ranger in all of Ordell if they keep putting the two of us together!" Ms. Knightly shouted as she threw her bags onto the bunk above me. She, herself, then climbed up the wooden-tiered ladder to the bunk soon after. Her Arcanine leaped up to follow and curled up against its master to relax. All of our pokemon soon moved towards their masters. Cubchoo fell asleep in Alice's lap while the odd clawed pokemon scaled up onto probably-Anya's shoulder. Gardevoir took a seat beside me, keeping her spine straight like mine.

Alice stroked her bear with a grin, "Aright, now that everyone is here we should all introduce ourselves! My name's Alice Fallon! Cubchoo an' I are from Chione, a Ridge Village. I'm 16 years old and gonna become an Operator!"

Anya began coughing hard, "You're 16? I thought you were maybe 13! If not an old looking elementary schooler..." I was just as baffled, blinking at the girl strangely. She was only three years younger than me.

The child-faced girl sighed, gloom growing around her heavily, "I get that a lot..."

The blonde quickly recuperated and cleared her throat as loud as she could. Which wasn't much, "Well, I'm Anya Legend. My partner is Sneasel and—we're both from Ebenon, ridge village," her voice shrunk farther and farther away as she spoke of her home city. But quickly recovered, "I'm also 16 and going to become an operator." I nodded as if I knew where Ebenon was and soon I realized they were all staring at me.

"My name's Tora Chael, 19," I nodded over towards Gardevoir beside me, "this is my partner. Gardevoir. We're both from the Ridge Village of Delic. And We're here to become rangers."

A redhead dropped her head down from the bunk, her fiery spindles of locks falling like upside down fire, "My ranger girl! So! What do you plan to do after becoming a ranger?"

"What is there after? I'll be a ranger, that's it."

Ms. Knightly's eyebrows furrowed together slightly before she sighed and retracted her head. "Well, my name is Phoenix Knightly! I know you are all in my class but none of you call me Ms. Knightly, got it? To you guys, I'm Phoenix. My partner's Arcanine and we're from the Ridge Village, Vulcah. Oh and I'm already a Pokemon Ranger, member of the guard. And nothing can stop me from helping those who need me!"

We all nodded a bit and started to unpack what was left of our things when Alice spoke up, "So we're all from Ridge Villages..." Her high voice tried to spark small talk as she held up a sand-storm looking poster against the wall. She didn't tear her eyes away from it as she took a large breath of defiance.

"Well yeah, most kids who attend Guard Academy to join the Guard are chosen from Ridge Villages. Don't ask why, I've gotta plan all planned out where I'll be talking about Ordell's geography! In a few days or so." Phoenix said, throwing strips of some paper into the middle of the room for her Arcanine to torch.

"Ugh, more boring things. "

"You know what, Anya Legend, if you have a problem with my curriculums why don't you write them and teach?"

"Gladly."

" _Really_?"

Anya just shrugged and continued to stand on our tiny table to hang white curtains on our window when she let out a great gasp and started to stumble off, Phoenix's Arcanine leaping to catch her on its fluffy back quickly.

"Anya! You okay?" Alice suddenly leapt from the top bunk, her landing foot eeking out a ghostly crackle. The cherry-haired girl paled before hopping around on her good foot, somehow stumbling around Anya, banging her hip into the bedside table. Subsequently followed by ramming her face into the window, "Oh my Arceus!"

Anya moved beside Alice to gawk out the window, muttering Klutz on the side before she started to laugh, "But really..."

Soon, Phoenix's curiosity looked as if it got the best of her as she peered into what was left of the window that wasn't absconded by people, "Not on my grounds!" she suddenly fumed, flashing out of the room in a run with her fire-partner not too far behind.

"Come on Tora! You've gotta see this!" Alice ushered in her excitedly soft tone, slightly fidgeting painfully from her spot to give me room. I shrugged and walked over beside the injured midget-teenager. What I saw running about in the dormitory grounds made my jaw fall as I cupped my hand over my own mouth so I wouldn't laugh.

It wasn't something that you should laugh at. But everyone did anyways.

There was a boy with honey-roasted brown hair running back and forth, his pale skin reflecting the sunlight. With one hand, he held the fold that kept his towel wrapped around his waist. He had a slight six pack coming in as he wailed. Two floating stones with eyes were joshing tossing, what was probably, his clothes back and forth by psychic powers. One rock was shaped as a crescent moon while the other was a sun.

Lunatone and Solrock.

Two pokemon I could identify on my own here, they're part psychic after all.

"Ooh, there are two gingers hiding in the bushes..." Alice pointed out.

Anya let out a purr and said, "And they're cute."

"So is the guy running back and forth for his clothes. I mean, his abs."

"Eh, not my type," though the blonde quickly looked to Alice with sudden shock in her deep eyes, "Wait- you have an abs fetish?"

The small girl's face turned as pink as her hair as she waved her arms dismissively, "No!"

"You hesitated!"

Anya's eyes glinted with a hellish deviation as a smirk curled at her lips. Alice whimpered and started to flee before letting out a small cry after putting weight on the foot she stubbed, "Ow! I think I broke my toe when I fell from the bunk..."

I chuckled at my roommates as I watched flames burn the twinning rock-psychic type pokemon to charcoals. Phoenix stumbling in, catching the clothes before they could light ablaze. She returns them to the owner as her pokemon nudges out a pair of boys looking exactly alike down to the point. They were the two gingers Alice saw earlier hiding in the bushes.

They didn't look ashamed in the least.

I looked over to my Gardevoir who still sat on my bed and shook my head, _this Academy is going to be nothing like we imagined back in_ _Delic_ _._

It was going have its ups and downs, but even as I look at it now, I wouldn't have traded that precious time for the world.

Even if it could've saved _that_ person.


	6. Chapter 5

A low light spurred me awake. Slowly, the blurred image of the bunk across came into focus, a dull pink slight bleeding onto our floor from the window. I took in a breath and numbly swung my feet over my bedside, brushing Gardevoir who slept beside me awake. I looked and saw Anya cross from me curled up like a ying-yang symbol together with her Sneasle. Occasionally, the blonde would twitch a leg and mumble something I couldn't make out. Above Anya's bed was Alice wrapping her arms around her ice-cub like a stuffed animal as she breathed with a slight nose whistle.

I silently crept over to the closet which, after a week and a half, was finally picked up and organized by Alice. Slowly opening, I saw the three girl's clothing aligned in color order. Most of it was Anya's and she said until they can take me shopping, I can borrow some of her and Alice's clothes. But since all three of my roommates were almost a foot shorter than me, the dresses that fell to their toes just passes my knees. But since I have a washboard chest, the top half of their clothes usually fit snuggly.

I took a plain yellow empire dress from Anya's side and quickly changed into it, it looked more like a high-waist sundress though from how I wore it. It didn't matter though to me as I slipped on a beat-up pair of tennis shoes. I threw over my pre-packed bookbag over my shoulder before Gardevoir and I quietly slinked out of the room and sprinted down the halls until we made it out of the dormitories.

It was barely past five in the morning as the chill bit at my arms, a hot steam blowing from my breath. I shivered slightly before leading the way around to the back of the dormitory building. It was sheltered by long stretching trees and thicket but behind was a large opening. Perfect for training.

"Barriers again," I ordered towards her, pulling my red styler from my bag. Excitedly, I clipped it onto my forearm, its metal gleaming in the early sun's rays. I didn't know how to use it then, but it still felt perfect to wear.

A week and a half has passed since I first arrived to the Capital, Auranus. Classes have been passing by slowly as we learned basics. But today was the day I was going to learn how to use my styler and actually capture pokemon in Capture Class. And I was thrilled.

Gardevoir took in a breath, calming her mind, as she erected a translucent shield in front of her.I nodded as a sign I was going to begin before I through a round-house kick at her. She bounced my foot back at me, sending enough force to make me do a 180. I rolled with the attack and came in with a punch at her stomach. Her barrier was so thick, it rebounded my hand and I uncurled my fist to shake it off. The psychic-type smirked, her pink eyes growing confident. She pushed the barrier at me, sending me falling onto the ground.

I looked to her with shock, stunned for a second on the ground. But I had to brush it off as I slid my weight onto my palms, twisting my leg out to trip Gardevoir. She was unprepared and fell over like I had. This time, her barrier shattering as it contacted the ground, making sure she felt the impact of the mountain rocks below.

I got back onto my feet first, brushing the dust from Anya's dress. I extended a hand to Gardevoir, "Again, partner?" she though looked at me angrily. "What? I broke your barrier. I've done that before."

Her head swung to the side to look the other way.

She was proud of that barrier and she thought she was going to beat me.

"Come on, we only have a little time to train before we have to get to Phoenix's class," I pleaded slightly to the psychic type who rose off the ground on her own.

"Tora! Time to get going!" I windy voice called from around the corner. I shot a look at Gardevoir before running over to where the voice came from. Gardevoir soon followed. At the front of the building, Alice was waiting with Anya and Phoenix already starting towards the school, "Training?" Alice asked as I met up with the small girl to walk.

I nodded.

"Oh," she said quietly before sniffling from the cold, "Cool. Ms. Phoenix says we have a long lesson today. How are your other classes going?"

"Good, today we have a styler capture lesson and will be competing against one another today," I told her as we walked the stone path to the Guard Academy. Making it to class, we took our seats and Poenix swung right into her lesson.

"Hello kids! Today our lesson will be about the three classes of Guard and how the Styler basically in a unity of all three of us," The redhead boomed from the cockpit of the classroom. The entire room of operators and me all focused in on her as she started to click buttons on a small remote. "Which will be basically the anatomy of a styler since you girls will be having to do stuff with them slightly... Damn technology..." Phoenix began to pound on the remote, "Why won't it start up..."

The set-up ceiling projector started to spark and Phoenix's gold eyes widened in horror as she ran over and poked at it with a long stick in hopes of saving it. Soon, it started to buzz and a rectangular box of light was shot out against the whiteboard.

It projected an image of three uniforms with a label under each.

First was a knight's tunic labeled Ranger. It was a basic black tunic with golden lining, the top have being white. There were a pair of black poofy pants that tucked into tall leather boots. Lasting, over the shoulders draped a red cape that fell down to the ranger's boots. It's what most ranger's I've seen wear.

Second was an engineer-like costume with the label of Mechanic. It looked like a black and white jump suit with gold lining around the arms. Over the front half of the body though was a metal smith's work apron and a golden work bag swung on the side of his hip. The shoes were nothing special, loose leather ankle boots. On the mannequins head were a pair of red goggles.

Finally was the only female costume. A woman's ball gown with the words "Operator" below. The dress fell down all the way to the ground, so I had no clue if shoes came with this. The white skirt was fluffed out, probably with a cage under it, with a jade overskirt draping over. The hip was sewn with a red-belt look that crawled up the bodice. Around the neck was a gold lining, held with a black stone. The arms of the dress fell down to the wrists in a tight clamp, the middle cut out.

"It worked!" Phoenix cheered as she ran up to the front of the classroom where her Acanine sat, shaking its head to its master. "Time to begin. First up, all three of us fall under The Guard, as we know. The Guard is the military enforcing the laws of the Alvar and also the protectors of the region. Of course, it's more than just the rangers running all willy-nilly. It has been the unity of the three classes of Operator, Mechanic and Ranger that has kept The Guard still in operation for these many years."

Phoenix slapped a pointer stick against the Ranger image, "To start off with is Class 1, the Pokemon Ranger. What I am. The ranger's are the ones who are constantly working on the front lines and are the face most people will put on The Guards. Pokemon Rangers use machines called Stylers to capture pokemon. I'll go over the styler in further detail later, but basically, the rangers transfer their emotions to the pokemon. Rangers can capture up to seven pokemon on their team, excluding their partner pokemon. These seven pokemon though can be released when the ranger desires or after they have had the pokemon assist in a capture. Of course, pokemon are not all that cause trouble in Ordell. That's why they capture pokemon nearby and train in different fighting styles. When they are pitted up against another human being, they tend to have a pokemon along side with them. Usually, the bonds between pokemon and malice people are superficial and make capturing the other pokemon easy. But the ranger must also turn and use their fighting skills and their pokemon to fight the _person_. It may seem hard, but it must be done to take the criminals into custody. Most rangers, after graduating Guard Academy, are wondering the region for missions and staying in cities and our rest areas, these rangers are usually given quests. But there is an elite few who are assigned to one of the four bases who are constantly going on missions. Rangers are given quests and missions, which they can accept or decline, by Operators.

"Which takes us to our next class in The Guard," Phoenix stated, jumping over across the board to point at the Operator's uniform. "The Operator's are less often out in the front lines with rangers. They have the option to, which creates basically an instant Styler recharger. The Operators generally stays in Ranger Bases and Depots, resting places of rangers. There they work to charge Stylers if any damage was taken to the technology. Operators also work on computers to keep many files in order which range between news updates and personal information on citizens of Ordell. There, they also receive information about nearby quests and offer them to passing rangers. Missions aren't usually for Operators to give but a by higher-up. Usually because missions are specific to select chosen Rangers. But there are times operators are sent messages to give certain Rangers nearby missions. Operators also have partner pokemon who can serve as their master's guardians. Operators may seem like receptionists, but without them, The Guard would fall apart very quickly.

"And that leaves us with the final class of Mechanic," the instructor pointed at the middle image. "Mechanics... Fix things! And occasionally take them apart, but only on Sundays. Alright, that's a joke. Mechanics are usually the less popularized Class of the Guard and rarely pull in many recruits due to the high skill level needed. Which is why when Mechanics come to . of the in charge of keeping bases and depots running and functioning. They also make repairs to the Ranger's styler if it has sustained a great amount of damage. It is extremely rare for Mechanics to leave depots or Bases around the region. There are some Mechanics who invent contraptions of their own to benefit the Guard further. The mechanics are the future of The Guard."

I absorbed the knowledge, jotting down simple notes in a notebook. Even though Phoenix abolished all tests and quizzes, since she despises them. She still recommends notes because she must administer a final exam for the class by law to see who graduates or not.

Phoenix clicked for the slide to change, the image of what I wore on my arm popping up. The styler though was much brighter on the board, "Now next up is the styler! Rangers use these machines to capture pokemon. The technology within in converts a rangers feelings into energy. Once the capture disc is released by clicking the center button, they can control the capture disc which is shot out of the front, if the disc is hit with an attack, the styler itself will take total damage which changes on a ranger's skill. The capture disc is controlled by this yellow antenna, which also captures signals from bases and depots. Here though, taking up most of the styler back, is a large screen, a red cover to protect it. Once it's unlatched, it opens up a screen in which rangers, operators and even mechanics can all speak to one another through. Stylers also have locating devices within its systems that operators can track rangers by the unique codes to each styler. Finally is a side panel in the capture technology."

Phoenix opened up the side panel of her styler and displayed it to the class who was paying attention.

"There are four connection ports," she stated, pointing to each one. "They can be used for numerous things. Data transfer. Charging when a styler. And Mega Evolution. The Guard are very different from pokemon trainers in other regions. The Guard can have numerous mega rings. This means we can mega evolve numerous pokemon at the same time. A very dangerous power placed in the wrong hands, really. No one knows when a psychopath or sociopath is going to walk through these doors and become a ranger, and use this power. But it can also save lives! So it's worth it. Plus, mega evolution can only exist when there is a strong bond or trust between ranger and pokemon. So it is most common for mega evolution to only happen between a Guard and their pokemon. Believe it or not, it's not just stylers that have these connection ports. Your chargers have them too. And the Mechanic's scanner. But most of the time, Operators and Mechanics do something more flashy with their mega rings, like turn them into necklaces or sew them into their aprons. Oh! I got off topic. Anyways, rest of the house is a study period."

I took in a breath, moving my pencil as fast as I could against my notebook. The writing wasn't focused, very messy and thrown about. The letters were inconstant and unsteady, but legible enough for me to read. That's all that really mattered. I reread my notes a few times to commit them to memory before the class bell chimed, meaning it was time to move.

I swiftly rose from my seat and motioned to Gardevoir. Despite our spat earlier that day, she seemed to have calmed down, and followed me close as the both of us rushed to Capture 101. It took place in the gym with a handful of maybe thirteen other students, under the instructor Alvar councilman Loki Romero. He was a very old man, to the point his skin sticks to his bones and age pulls the skin into wrinkles. Mr. Romero's eyes sunk far back into his head as his eyebrows were thick and falling like a frame around his face. He was extremely thin and had long grey hair pulled back into a ponytail as we had to live with seeing his scraggly beard fall to his stomach. He was very old-world. He always wore a white gee too, a blackbelt wrapped around his waist.

"You're late, Miss Chael," Mr. Romero growled as I melted into our group.

"Well, my last class is all the way across the Academy's campus," I answered steadily as I tried to blend in with the rest of the men who glared at me.

"Tardiness is _not_ tolerated within my class, Miss Chael."

I wasn't the only late student that day though, "Sorry Mr. Romero!" a voice cued in as a boy stumbled through the gym doors with his stupid smirk, a small grey-stone elephant following behind him. "I got caught up in conversation with a few Operator recruits," his honey-thick voice purred as he came up next to me. His head slightly angled itself towards me and he winked. I rolled my eyes, focusing back to Mr. Romero.

Zayden Valentino was his name. Only a year younger than me, making the two of us the oldest in the class. I'm not sure what circumstances made him so old to train and become a ranger, but it didn't involve me. His partner was a ground-type. One easily notable trait about him was that he's a huge womanizer.

Mr. Romero scrunched out a smile to the salmon-haired boy, "Oh youth. Just don't be late to my class again, Mr. Valentino."

And the biggest teacher's pet.

"Anyways, class. Today is our capture lesson. We will run over how the styler basically works as an overview and then go over on how to actually capture. After, I will pair everyone up and they will go through our set up optical course. Through the course, you will go through many odd things and try to capture our training pokemon which will try to slow you down," Mr. Romero lead us out carefully to the largest court yard on campus just outside of the gym. Many things had been added in, large rocks in path ways. Fallen trees. mud spills. And small pokemon like Meditite, Rufflet and Gligar littering the area. They were common mountain pokemon I'd grown knowledge of lately. "Now before we start up our lesson, we are short on some supplies. Miss Chael, could you please run to the supply room and bring us a few hurdles."

I nodded quietly, motioning to Gardevoir to stay behind since I'd be back in a moment, and then took a power jog into the school. He was probably giving the lesson and this was the last thing I could miss. It didn't take long to get to the supply room since it was near the gym. Usually it was locked, but the door was partially open today since Mr. Romero was already using it to get out supplies.

I saw a single person coming down the halls, not like I would cause much commotion for them. I waved quietly over to the person to show I acknowledged them. Maybe it was from the distance, but the person's facial features weren't defined, just like a sheet white veil on their face as their inky hair fell into their eye slits. _A mask? I really shouldn't be surprised with all the weirdoes in this school. I thought to myself._

The metal door was heavy as I swung it open farther, the mountain sunlight pouring into the darkness of the room. The room had become very bare from how much of it was being used in the obstacle course. But my eyes soon landed on the striped orange hurdles. I jumped to run into the back to pick them up. The supply room was warmer than the hallways, but the plastic hurdles were surprisingly cold as I wrapped my arms around them. I heaved slightly as I straightened up.

 _Bam!_

I swung around to the sudden thud, the light fizzling away suddenly. The door had been thrown shut. I dropped all the hurdles down to the ground with a tumbling thud as I ran up against the door, banging my fist against it. I shook the door handle futilely, knowing it was locked. "Hey, the door closed shut! Can anyone hear me? I need help!"

"Sorry."

My eyes widened as that hostile and unfamiliar rolling voice snarled at me.

"Let me outta here!" I screamed, keeping my right ear pressed against the chilly door.

"I'm just following orders," Soon, the person's footsteps tapped away.

I started to bash against the door with my arms and feet, screaming for help. Screaming for the person to come back. I went on for a long time until I was out of breath. My back fell against the door and I slid down to the stone floor with heavy breaths filling my lungs, "Someone... Please... Hear me." The only light in the entire room was seeping in from the crack beneath the door.

I stared at the hurdles that fell askew on top of one another disorderly. It was all obvious after it happened. I didn't need to scream who put you up to this. I didn't need to scream why did they lock me up right now. It was all obviously a set up. No one seems to want me to learn about becoming a ranger here. Except for maybe Phoenix and Alice.

I ran my fingers through my short hair, the hot room starting to boil me. My head resting into my palms as I took thick breaths. This wasn't the first incident since I started school of course. I wouldn't have been waking up early in the morning to train. I mean, I'd already made it to the Guard Academy where I'd be trained by the best. But the best refused to train me. I thought I had to show them I was strong.

In Ranger Survival class, the instructor would constantly skip over me. Though that really never bothered me.

I'd sit alone in the lunch room with Gardevoir and eat food much lower quality than the what people around me had. That didn't bother me either.

The words of the children around me wasn't what got to me either.

Those were all just low and petty things. None of this really bothered me. That's what I'd say to myself. But it wasn't true. It really hurt to hear peoples words. It stung to sit alone in the lunch and it was foul to know I was eating crappy food. And I wanted to scream I existed to my instructors who pretended I didn't exist. But I couldn't say anything. I wouldn't.

My head sunk into my arms as I curled up into a small ball.

There was no way I was going to stomach all of this for the rest of my time at this Academy. I shuttered slightly, dropping my walls slowly. I was alone. So it was okay. All I could hear was my own rasping breaths and only focus on the sweat that clung to my skin like a layer of plastic wrap. Time passed so slowly, I wondered if class was done already.

"Chael! Chael!"

The voice shattered my moment as I heard someone calling. Feet were thundering down the halls, getting closer and closer to me. I shook my head quickly and jumped up, pressing both my fists into the door.

"In here! The Supply room! Get me outta here!"

Someone was looking for me.

The feet slid and slipped just out side the door before I saw their shadow block some of the light that fell into the room. Their hand suddenly came against the door with a shuttering thump, "How'd you get stuck in here?"

"The door closed behind me," I lied quietly, "and it locked."

"Geez, your actually an airhead!" the voice from on the other side of the door was laughing at that, "It's actually pretty cute."

"Get me outta here."

"Just get back from the door, Chael. I'll get you out."

I obediently listened, running to the end of the store room to pick up the hurdles. I don't care that Mr. Romero set this up. If I actually had hope of getting out of here, I was gonna throw those things at his feet, "Alright, I'm away from the door!"

"Alright, Donphan, you know what to do," It was silent for a few seconds before a giant force came barreling into the door. The hinges snapped, the screws flying out nearby as metal shards sparked out. The steel door splattered down to the ground. An armored pokemon came in, its stone grey skin standing out against it's black armor from its tail to its trunk. Above, the light cast around a boy just a year younger than me. His pink hair glowing as he smirked at me, his violet eyes sparkling with some pride, "See? Out!"

It was teacher's pet, Zayden Valentino. That made no sense to me at the time.

I walked out, somewhat looking at the door crookedly, "That was your partner pokemn, Donphan, not you."

"Hey! You'd be still stuck in there if I didn't come along! Donphan is my partner, meaning I commanded him, which means I got you out!" the boy shouted like a little child, eying the few hurdles I gripped, "Let me take those."

His hand reached out to grab the hurdles and I swung away, the end of one hitting him upside the head, " _I'm_ taking these to Mr. Romero, Teacher's pet."

He and I walked down the halls back to the gym in an awkward silence. I didn't know what he was thinking.

"Why'd you come looking for me?" I quietly buzzed as we were pacing through the gym doors, gripping the hurdles closer.

"Easy," he said immediately, "without you there are only 13 kids in the class. Making it an odd number. Meaning that in the end, I had no partner to compete against if you aren't there. And everyone else already went. I wonder why, I mean, we didn't have the hurdles Mr. Romero asked you to get when everyone started competing."

 _Clueless idiot._

"Don't worry, I'll go easy on you," he winked to me, with his cocky smirk.

I rose an eyebrow to him, "Why, because I missed the lesson?"

"That and you're a girl."

"And you're an idiot. Don't worry, I'll go easy on you."

His smile fell, not that he was hurt or anything, "Hey, don't forget I'm the one who got you out of the supply room. You owe me."

"Oh Arceus, I really hope not."

His head cocked to me, "Oh definitely."

Once we made it to the obstacle course, the last team was releasing their captured open, light shattering around the pokemon before they scampered off back onto the course. Mr. Romero turned around to look at us, his eyes showing the slightest flinch at the sight. I stood right up to him and dropped the hurdles at his toes. I loomed over the old man as I stared into his black eyes, "I got your obstacles, Mr. Romero."

His shock dispersed as he cleared his throat, "Erm, good job. But you took an extremely long time to get here! You even inconvenienced Mr. Valentino!"

"Sorry, the _wind_ closed the door behind me," I said, already walking over to Gardevoir who smiled with relief to me. I returned the glow with a light sigh.

His nose crinkled up with anger, "Just get ready to begin your competition. Starting line is over there." The elder nodded to where Zayden and his Donphan waited.

"Um, Sir," I said, "I missed the capture lesson from being stuck in the supply room. I don't know-"

"That would be your fault! Not mine! Now go!"

I inhaled sharply, ready to snap at the man. But I knew it wouldn't help any. So I let it out and went to the front line with Gardevoir. She shot me a worried glance but I waved her off, "We'll be alright." I whispered quietly to her.

" _Go!_ "

Both Zayden and I took off running down the course. First for me was a fallen log and a Gligar waiting on top of it. I ran over to it and extended my arm out towards the creature. But my mind blanked out. The pink-skinned glider pokemon cocked its head at be before taking a lunge at my hesitation. I leapt of the way, the attack slicing at Gardevoir who recoiled.

"Capture on!" A voice yelled on the other side of the course. But I couldn't see what happened.

Though I knew I had to imitate, "Capture on." I spoke with insecurity, pressing my opposite hand against the entire styler on my right wrist. Something fell in on the styler like a button and the front burst open. A small grey and blue dradel-like object popped out. It fell to the ground and spun just a few centimeters above the grass. When I removed my hand, the screen popped open on my capture device.

I suddenly panicked and threw my arm back. The capture disc moved in sync, leaving a light blue trail. The Gligar saw the slowing trail and attacked it out of fear. The trail shattered and my styler began to flash, a bar on it falling from green to yellow. It all seemed so alien and terrifying. The Gligar began to slash and slash at the capture disc, my styler flashing and emitting weird bleeps and bloops. My eyes widened as the screen started to display the word "WARNING!" over and over again. I aimlessly jumped around, trying to keep the disc or myself from getting attacked. Which wasn't working. I began to fall into mud. The attacks slashing my arm. Gardevoir and I ramming to one another to get Gligar.

A whistle sounded loudly ringing into my ears, "And Mr. Valentino is the winner!" I looked around suddenly as the Gligar flew over to where Mr. Romero waited smugly. Zayden was striding confidently up beside him, with a team of pokemon beside him. He opened up his styler and released them all. The violet-eyed recruit looked at me and smirked.

I moved my eyes down to the ground between my shoes as I clenched my fist. My fingernails digging into my flesh like it was sand on a beach.

 _This isn't fair. It's not fair. I shouldn't have lost to that kid. It's not fair._

I looked back up and smiled to the victor, "Good job."

But I knew it wasn't Zayden's fault. I shot a glare at Romero who continued to hold his "all-knowing" stare. He knew there was nothing I could do now.


	7. Chapter 6

_Calm down, calm down. It'll be okay,_ I took in a long breath, my eyes surfed the waves of people. My finger's clenched the plastic tray of slop as I slowly took a few steps forward. My normal table had been taken by some squatters. This wouldn't be as much of a problem if no other table was available to sit at. Each was full up with a chattering group of people who created their clicks earlier on. It was too late to jump into any of them.

Even Alice and Anya found a group where they barely managed to squeeze in to sit. The two girls looked like they were having a ball at their lunch. I'd feel like I would be intruding if I joined them so I strode past. Alice turned to watch me walk, smiling softly before going back to talk with her friends.

I couldn't find any open tables. My shoulders sank as Gardevoir gave me a fake smile. We continued to find maybe an open bench to eat on nearby.

"Tora! Tora, Over here!"

I turned carefully to look at the voice calling me. A familiar roommate stood, waving her arm wildly as the fire-haired woman stood from a table. She was grinning like an idiot, people around her cringing at her booming voice. She was sitting at a mostly empty table. The tables around had maybe ten individuals around them. This one had four.

One was an obvious ranger woman waving to me like a maniac, "Come and sit with us! Join us! Join us!"

A man beside her let out a heavy sigh as his head fell into his palm, "Phoenix, people are staring." He was smiling though as he said these words. The man was dressed in the standard ranger uniform while his raven hair fell flatly against his head. With is dark eyes, he looked up to the eccentric woman. He must have been two or three years older than her.

"Do you think she'll listen?" a boy inserted with a laugh, his familiar honey roasted locks flying up with energy.

I carefully picked my seat with them carefully, sliding next to the only person who hadn't spoken yet. A seldom-looking blonde boy maybe a year older than Anya and Alice. I cocked my head to the honey-burnt boy with emerald eyes who laughed, "Towel boy!" I said, finally being able to recognize him, "You were chasing after your clothes outside of the girl's dorm in only a towel on the first day!"

The blue-eyed character beside me stifiled a laugh at my exclamation. Though "Towel boy"'s face turned a scarlet that put Phoenix's hair to shame, "That wasn't my fault! It was those twin devils and their pokemon that did that! And now everyone can only think of me as towel boy..." his face sunk into his hands quickly as he mumbled, "That's not how the day was supposed to go. That wasn't even close to perfect."

"If makes you feel any better, one of my roommates thought you were cute," I encouraged.

"It doesn't!"

Phoenix danced around the table, dropping her arm around the embarrassed boy casually, "This's Rylan Grace. And I am his knight in shining armor! Saving the prince in distress! After that incident, no one would let him sit with them without harassing him about it. So, like the great ranger I am, I swooped him up once more and brought him to the safety of my kingdom!"

The dark eyed ranger dropped his forehead into his hand, "Phoenix..." his voice warned.

Phoenix pouted, skipping beside the man, "Geez. And this stick-in-the-mud is my ranger partner back at the base, _Stephan_ Atticus. What a presumptuous name, he's also our base leader there. I made him sit with me here," The woman's pale hand dropped onto the top of his head casually as she slid back into her seat, "The person beside you is Kurtis Hikaririaon. He doesn't talk too much but when I saw him sitting all alone, I dragged him over here against his will."

Stephan Atticus laughed at this, "And she's not kidding. She actually grabbed the back of his chair and dragged him all the way over to our table. Then when he tried to get up, she threatened him with her plastic knife."

"Did I say you could speak, _Stephan?_ " The storyteller shouted, her cheeks reddening in anger as she jumped in her seat like a kid. "Back to the story! Kurtis has been sitting with us ever since!" I shot a worried look to the boy beside me. He simply shrugged and shook his head with a echoed smile at his emotionless expression.

Gardevoir tapped me on my shoulder, motioning that she would like to join the pokemon playing in the courtyard beside the cafeteria. I nodded for her to go on and the psychic-type grinned kidd-shly before teleporting out.

We all took a few moments to eat, enjoying the peace of no talking until Phoenix broke it all, "So Tora! Today was your first capture lesson and competition! Did you grind those pathetic weakling boys into the ground with your raw strength?" for some reason, I felt terrified of Phoenix for a moment.

I looked at her, angling my head slightly as I let out an awkward chuckle, "Erm... About that," with that I took in a breath and spilled everything that happened in class. The men at the table seemed shocked. But Phoenix's face of horror melted into a terrifying rage.

She shot up from her seat, a fire of anger engulfing her. She looked as if she was ready to kill someone, "This is bullshit! I'll go down there and kill 'em!"

Stephan though was ontop of this like it'd happened before. He jumped up and grabbed Phoenix's waist to pull her back to her seat, "Down, shorty!" Stephan shouted to his partner.

"Shut it, Stephanie!"

"Phoenix!"

Finally, the ranger was able to get the hothead back into her seat, the lunch room around us sweatdropping slighting as she was finally calm.

The blonde at our table rolled his head as he picked at his food, "Well, that was loud."

"He spoke!" Phoenix gasped before all of us shook our heads together, "Anyways Tora, after you finish your classes, go and drop your stuff off in your room. Then come and meet me behind the dormitories."

"Why?" Stephan questioned, shooting a suspicious stare at Phoenix.

She smiled, "Oh, if I told you, then I'd have to kill you. And I don't really wanna do that."

And so the day went on slowly dragging along. I performed well in my next two classes to make up for the events that happened earlier that day. When my partner and I made it back to the dorm room, it was hopeless to believe in one peaceful moment.

"Tora! Tora! Tora!" Alice's accented voice rang as I place a foot into the doorway, "Vampires, Weremightena or Ninjas?"

"What?"

Anya, who lied on her bottom bunk popped some bubble gum as she read a magazine, answered for me, "She's asking if you'd date a vampire, weremightena or ninja. Alice, stop asking everyone this."

"No! I have to know who's really my friend and who's not!" Alice protested, stomping down her foot with a glare. In her arms, I noticed a book.

"She's only worked up about this because I said Vampires."

"No! Vampires are horrible! They. Drink. Your. Blood. Ew ew ew ew ew ew ew!" the cotton-candy haired girl began to run around with excitement, "So, Tora, which is it?"

"None of the above," I grunted with a toss of my book bag to my bed.

"No! Ninjas! Ninjas! They're so much more romantic with how they are sworn to protect you with their life! But since you two are from two different worlds, the love is forbidden! An' then, he takes you away from your sheltered world where-"

"Um... Where's all this coming from?" I asked, half wishing her to be quiet.

Anya let her magazine slip slightly, "She just finished reading a manga about some ninja and romance and some weird time hole. Now she's asking everyone who'd listen. She also has a delusion that her ninja will come one day and that they'll fall in love."

Alice sniffled as she shot the book out for me to stare at. It had a picture of a girl with pink hair facing a man upside down whose hair was very dark, "It's not a delusion! My Kagetora'll come for me! Oh! Tora, so this main ninja's a guy named Kagetora an' in the old Kanto-tongue, his name equates to Shadow-Tiger. Tigers are these beast creatures in old myths! They look slightly like Arcanines. Anyways, his name means shadow tiger! Isn't that so cool? Wait- that means your name means tiger! Did your parents read old tales too?"

"Um, I never heard of tigers before..." I muttered rubbing the back of my head as I stretched out a bit, "But you like ninjas. I doubt you'll have _the_ Kagetora-"

The girl nodded, "True, true. Kagetora isn't exactly my type but very close to it. And since he's from a fictional world, I'd have to find this world's version of him. Which is the _reverse_ Kagetora! He'll be the same but reversed in away, or altered."

The blonde popped her gum once more, "Your logic is rock solid."

"Really?"

"... No."

I let out a light breath, shaking my head as the two teenagers bantered back and forth. Only the best of friends could really argue like that. I was on my way out of the door when it was thrown open into my face, the door clamoring against the back wall as the dorm adviser strode in, "What's taking you so long, Tora?"

"Alice is asking weird questions."

At the sound of her name, the blue-eyed midget jumped up and grinned at the sight of Phoenix, "Perfect timing! Weremightena, vampires or ninjas?"

"NINJASSSS," Phoenix answered with a giddy grin.

"Hell yeah!"

Phoenix dropped her smile and looked at Alice crookedly, "Wait- why are you asking?"

Alice just shrugged as she started to scramble her way up to the top bunk, holding the manga above her face as she smiled like an idiot. Then it fell. Then her eyes began to water. Then she screamed, "NO!" and then she smiled again with relief. And then she pushed forward a watery smile saying, "She did know before... Hyc..."

Anya looked over her magazine to both Phoenix and me, lipping "run" to us before smiling beautifully.

The ranger and I nodded, pulling our way out and down the dormitory halls, "I thought we were going to _meet_ behind the buildings?"

"I got impatient."

My shoulders sunk as I laughed hollowly, "Makes perfect sense." when we finally made it out to the area where I trained in the morning, Phoenix skipped across the fields from me with her Arcanine at her heel, "So why are we here?"

The flame-feather haired girl placed both her fists onto her hips like some sort of superhero when she turned to me with a great big grin. "I'm gonna train you to capture pokemon. If that bigoted old gasbag won't teach you, then I will," Phoenix swept up her arm to cross in front her, the woman's styler covering half her face. "Don't worry, you'll be learning from the best."

"Thanks, Phoenix."

"Well you need some training if your going to graduate. It's not like they actually want you to, so we'll make sure you do." I nodded as she held out her styler, "Now, I talked earlier today about how clicking the center world button with send out the capture disc, but it also opens up the screen in the center compartment. It is generally nice to scream out to the world 'capture on!' right before a capture to alert everyone around. Plus it's pretty fun," Once she yelled the coined phrase, the ranger woman opened up her styler, the capture disc shooting out. Her eyes locked with the dradel object and misted over as she spoke next, "Rangers are common. But when it comes to actually being strong, it doesn't come down to the muscle or dexterity or pluckiness. It comes down to how much you love the people your protecting. Sometimes it isn't enough, but it's all we have." Phoenix shook her head, like pushing away thoughts that I couldn't read.

"The Styler is a marvelous things, you know? The mechanic who created them built them so that the feelings that we, rangers, hold in are hearts are manifested into power to capture pokemon," carefully, Phoenix crossed her arm up, the capture disc moved with no resistance. A brilliant blue illumination followed it, glowing even brighter in the falling night. The trail never faded, it just was created and lasted defiantly, "It is staying like this right? Well when you draw a circle," she hummed as she traced her fingers into a circle in front of me. The capture disc followed exactly and a loop of the light, though once the circle was created, it all popped. The energy gathered into the center and burst with nothing to remain but the capture disc, "What just happened is I trapped my feelings into a circle. This is generally done around a pokemon I'm in battle with. Those feelings are all forced into the pokemon. The goal for us rangers to get pokemon to understand and for us to understand them. The Styler is our universal language. And if you have something you truly feel you are protecting or fighting for, then you will be even stronger as a ranger.

"If the blue line is ever touched though by the pokemon or another human, the feelings have been disrupted and the circle must start again," Phoenix leaned closer to me so I could see her Styler screen. There were two bars across it and two buttons. She pointed to an empty top gauge, "This is the pokemon's understanding. The more I draw circles around a pokemon, the more they understand and the more this gauge will fill. Once it has filled completely, you have successfully completed a capture!"

"And the bottom bar?"

"That would be your styler health. You see, your styler receives damage if the capture disc or following line is attacked by either element or physical slash, your attempt at understanding is not being accepted and the hostility from the pokemon goes against the properties of the styler. So it is damaged. Though you are able to regain your health from certain electric-type pokemon or Operators. If your styler is directly attacked though, that's something you go to a Mechanic about." Phoenix explained.

I pointed to a stick figure button in the left corner of the screen, "What's that?"

"An escape button. If a battle ever becomes too hairy, sometimes it's the brave thing to run away and live to fight another day. It creates a brief disruption, giving you a few seconds to get away and regroup."

"Sounds like the Torchic's way out," I laughed, "And the last button?"

Phoenix pressed into the capture-disc button and the screen changed, displaying a sprite of her partner pokemon, "Poke Assist. The pokemon we capture to join our team, seven at most- not including our partner, are able to assist us. We choose a pokemon, and this varies for each pokemon, and they're hearts join with ours. They link up with us and their element is transferred into the capture disc. For a fire-type like Arcanine, I can create rings of fire that still transfer my feelings to a pokemon. This doubles the impact of the styler's befriending if it is against a bug or grass type pokemon. But it would be halved if I was facing a water or a ground type. I'm not too familiar with the psychic-type's ability though, so you'll have to figure out that one yourself."

I nodded, "Is that everything?"

The redheaded nodded slightly as if contemplating it, "Basically. Though there are rangers who exist that have their pokemon do more than just be there for assist trials. Some ride their pokemon in battle to get a jolt of speed and avoid being attacked. Others use them to fence an opponent into a single area. Oh! And about partners, if you ever travel with another ranger like partners, they can be very useful. In battle, two can team up against one and quicken the capture (though usually they fight about who captured it first), or the partner is there to cover your back when you're both surrounded."

I smiled as my instructor looked away with a haze in her eyes, "Sounds like you know this well."

"Uh huh..." A smile pricked at her lips.

"Do you like Stephan?"

The woman's spell broke as she looked directly at me with shock, a blush starting to tingle up her neck to her cheeks, "No! Why would I like a meanie like him! He's always calling me shortie and undermines me. And stops me from doing things I probably would regret later on, though I regret nothing. And how he steals my captures even when I totally had them, and how he ruffles my head randomly. And don't get me started when he jumps into conversations I'm having when I didn't want him too or when I am talking to him, he completely twists my words! Or how at the end of the day, he's actually right. Or- What were we talking about again?"

I laughed at her with a grin, "Never mind."

"Oh! Oh! Do you wanna hear the story of how him and I became such good ranger partners?"

"Sure."

"Okay! So I come to our base on the first day, fresh out of ranger school, and he just completely dismisses me as a ranger! Godfrey, our original base leader at the time, assigned us as partners even though we hated each other the most in the base! Every time we went on missions or quests, we'd end up arguing and barely finishing up the job. But then one day, we took a request up in my home town, Vulcah... I- I won't go into the details. But a lot of things happened and we ended up in a long abandon shrine fighting a fierce fire monster. I could barely comprehend its power. I won't forget its long brown mane. Or its metallic plated face as the flames it created licked away at the rotted wood. Smoke flew up into our lungs and the building was falling to pieces. I saw an exit and was racing to get to it alone, when I heard Stephan choking on the poisonous smoke. I had a choice. I never got along with him, but I had to have his back. So I turned around and dug through the burning wood to find him. When I did, he'd lost consciousness from all the smoke. I was barely keeping my eyes open then too, but I swooped him up and carried Stephan, like a princess, all the way out into the clean air outside of the shrine. I collapsed right after that, still holding my Ranger Partner in my arms. After that, he had a lot more respect for me. The pokemon got away, but I saved his life," Phoenix said fondly as she reminisced, "Moral of the story, no matter what son of a bitch you get partnered up with, Tora, if you save his life- then he'll at least moderately respect you as a ranger!"

I snickered at the moral as the bushes beside us rattled slightly. Her and I both turned our heads to see a small fighting-type part its way to us. It was like a little monk, Meditite.

"Tora, this is your chance! Capture it, now! That is your first quest from me," Phoenix ordered.

"Quest accepted," I locked my eyes with the small pokemon who cocked its head at me curiously, "Capture on!" confidence rattled in my voice this time as I pounded onto the blue button of my styler. The front burst open like last time, the styler shooting out towards the fighting type. I stole a glance at the screen and I understood it this time. I inhaled carefully as I began drawing circles in front of me. The dradel-object followed my movement with a faint blue line. The feelings flowed into the fighting-type but it freaked from the light, throwing a punch right into the disc. It recoiled back, the line fizzing off into the night. I glanced at my Styler screen and watched my 10/10 health deplete to 7/10.

I couldn't let that distract me though, I went back to circling the pokemon, its gauge filling up on my screen. I was going to do this myself. The lines closed in farther and farther around the pokemon before its entire body lit up white with my last loop. When the light died down, the blue-skinned Meditite still stood, but it looked at me and nodded with acknowledgment before walking up beside me.

My first capture.

"Good job, Tora!" Phoenix burst after it finished. She looked right through me as she asked, "Is there anything you have to protect?"

I couldn't answer that question. I'd spent my life to become a Ranger to save people. But who am I saving?

 _Is there anyone worth protecting?_


	8. Chapter 7

"Good morning everyone! Now, we've got a lot to do today, so no more pretending to care and actually pay attention in class today. I know it sucks, but-well, I was going to say something inspirational, but I changed my mind. Get over it, you bunch of pansies, and get out your notebooks!"

As if on cue, the entire classroom flipped out their spiral books with a united flop. My eyes focused on the lead of my pencil and my ears strained to only hone in on the Operator course teacher's words. It's been a couple weeks since Phoenix had started training me. Since then, I've been getting faster capture times but I still struggled with some of the basics of classes.

"Today is when we learn the geography of the country you were born in! So congratulations on waiting until you're 13 or older to learn this. Wait, no- this goes to your parents." Phoenix continued with a hinting dominant glint in her eyes. That was one thing both she and I had in common, our golden eyes which seemed to constantly strive for more than what's given to us. The teacher took in a large breath, "Now onto the lesson, any questions before we start?"

From the entire crowd, Anya's thin arm perked up very defiantly.

"No questions? Good! Let's begin."

The blonde's arm slowly fell back as she let out a small pouted grunt for the room to hear. Phoenix, for yet another lesson, fidgeted with the screen projector to turn it on. Though, surprisingly, today she got it up in under ten minutes.

A new record for her.

She smiled to the class as the rectangular square flashed onto the backboard, "I told all of you I'd be able to work technology, one day. And if you doubted that, well here's my fucking proof." The class blinked owlishly to the woman who lead the class. She was able to (almost) easily flip straight to the image for today's class, "And today, I have a laser pointer!" the senior ranger chirped, flashing the red light in the front-rows eyes before moving it up to the displayed map.

The focused image was very egg shaped, with a blotched out tan background surrounding. At the bottom was a small key to dignify the geography and symbols across the map which was primarly four colors. Brown taking up a good three-fifths of the oval, with the bumpy symbols of mountains. Then falling to the south of the labeled HolyHeart Mountains was a yellow area with the writing of South Desert. Just beside the desert was a green shaded portion named the Broken Woods. And to separate these climate areas were wisps of rivers that grew heavier close to the forest and thinned like a veil as they proceeded to the desert section. Around the region were many red dots, one in the very center. Finally were four rosy diamonds placed closer to the center.

And beside the key were lacy letters spelling out: "Ordell".

"This is your home region, ladies. Averagely large, and completely landlocked by surrounding regions even larger than us. We have an approximate population of nine million, residing in our 19 cities or traveling between our five ranger bases and 67 ranger depots. That may be a bunch of numbers and shit to you right now that seem insignificant- and you would be right about that," Phoenix suddenly fell into her role of Ms. Knightly with a roll of her shoulders. Ms. Knightly buzzed her laser light across the map to each location mentioned, "I'm not going to test you on how many ranger depots there are in Ordell, that's just stupid and would never help you in the field. But you should know the basics.

"Here in Ordell, we are born into the type we raise as our pokemon partner. It's not some test or hand-out or destined partner decided before you are even conceived. It all depends on the city which you hailed from. 18 of our 19 cities are type based and all 18 are placed around the rim of the region. They are constantly referred to as 'Ridge Villages' even though they can be extremely vast cities. The 19th city in Ordell is where we are now, Auranus. The center of the region, where our most Elite Ranger base is also located. People come from all around and settle in their lives. Here, you have no assigned type if you are born here. Weather you are born in the lower district of poverty. Or the middle district of merchants. Or the Center district of the highest living. Auranus itself is a city state built on an old ruin where many think everything happening is. But really, its just a glittery, glorified, death trap. I mean, have you seen how far those bridges are from the ground? I should probably move on.

"You see, when the region as being rebuilt many years ago, it was divided into four quarters like a small pizza, Auranus being the meeting point for all of them. Since the Guard would not be able to split themselves up from Auranus alone, they stationed the four bases now existing. At these bases are the best of the best who work over those quarters of their region. People assigned there are also born from those sections. Two typing cities are on boarders, meaning they could swing to either section. Auranus is game for all four.

"We begin with the Cerin Section, the upper left corner of the map. In order from top to bottom, the cities are Reades, city of stones. Titania, where the fairies never stop playing. Ebenon, where the shadows rule. Tecayot, take-off point of the birds. And finally, Yth, the dragon's paradise. This entire quarter is mountain region, a part of what we call the HolyHeart Mountains. There are ruins that are almost like a city between Titania and Ebenon, like they used to be one city. Then from the outskirts of Tecayot are shambled ruins that run southern-ward for quite aways. The Cerin Base is nestled in the center of the quarter.

"Next would be the Nett Section! Where I've been stationed since day one!" Ms. Knightly winked to the class as she bore a cocky grin, as if saying we couldn't do that. "We share the dragon city, Yth with Cerin. Following is Feris, the steel-worked world. Chione, ruins of ice in the desert. Vulcah... The flames that never stopped. Finally, Xolotl- where sparks fly! The ruins from the Cerin city of Tecayot run all the way down to Chione, which lump largely around that area. The Nett base of the section is located in a desert oaisis. We have desert storms in the South Desert, passing by occasionally. And we have a nice vast library to curl up into that you could spend forever in without finishing all the books." She drown off in her own thoughts for a moment before being snapped back, her voice laughing awkwardly.

"Then is the Sarre Section. The cities go as followed from left-bottom to top. Flais, the peaceful town of swaying flowers by the river. Vayl, where fists speak more than words. Giae, bug heaven. Shaif, a toxic wasteland. And lastly, Willmond, where the restless spirits cling. This region is mainly forestry and river. Between Giae and Shaif, there is a large marshland that is skin-crawlingly mucky. Within deep of the Broken Woods is where the Sarre Base is. The people who built it had a sense of humor, they built it where an old castle that even historians have forgotten about stands in shambles.

"Finally is the Beata Section. A mixture of farmland plains and the HolyHeart Mountains. They share the ghostly Willmond with Sarre, also. Moving up is the extremely plain Lalit city of normality. Then is Delic," the instructor's eyes quickly met with mine before tearing back to the class around, "an enhanced mind of new powers. Then is Chalciu, the lost city of Atlantis on land. Leaving the last, city of Pan, where everyone is grounded! Oh puns, how I love them. The only ruins in the land are broken foundations around Delic. The Beata base is placed into the mountains, a good secluded spot really.

"That wraps up our Geography today," Ms. Knightly stated as she glanced at a clock up in the wall. She nodded to herself, "We still have some time so I guess I'll go over the difference between Ranger Bases and Depots in more depth than I have already. Ranger Depots are small, two-room, buildings. Here in Ordell we have 67 of these buildings located all around. On the first floor is a small Operator station where an Operator, like how you girls will be, work. At their station they have their charging equipment and a computer for their file organization and quest sending. From their computer, they find quests in the near area of lower caliber and then transmit them through radio signals to the area around them. Ranger stylers which pass by will receive the message of the quests and the Ranger's have choices to accept them. If they are accepted, then the Operator uses their computer to stay in contact with the ranger throughout the quest. Back to what Depots are, on the second floor is where passing Mechanics can work, passing rangers can rest and also the location of a Tropius Transit. The Tropius Transit is our regions form of public transportation. Anyone can use them. The Guard are the only citizens who are allowed to ride the pokemon across the region for free since they have to move with immediate action at times. And that's basically the ranger Depot.

"That brings us Ranger bases. Ranger bases have permanently stationed Guard members That never vary. They have four Rangers, one Operator, and one Mechanic. One of the four rangers is the base leader who controls most everything that happens to his team members. Unlike other regions, our base leaders do have ranger partners they go on missions and quests with. But this partner is usually a veteran in the field and able to carry themselves. This team of six always creates an inseparable bond that will hold them, even when they all have to go their separate ways. The missions and quests that come to the bases are specific to their quarter for the region, but they are usually more difficult and dangerous. The only base which is not held to a certain quarter would be the one here in Auranus who go on the strongest missions all around. Onto the base structure, no one can describe their shape or size because they vary in all of those depending on where you go. The bare necessary of a ranger base though is a main room where the team will gather every morning and clients can come in with problems. Also where the Operators work. Then are the chambers where the base team sleeps and any passersby. They also need a Mechanic's work space. Where the team mechanic can fix things, tear them apart, create, etc. And of course, a second floor for the Tropius Transit. The rest is always varying where ever you go. And that's about it.

"As I've expressed before, it is a very low chance that any of you get assigned to a ranger base. Seeing that there only three operator jobs, one mechanic jobs and eight ranger jobs open currently in bases. Plus, you can only get into four of the five bases. The Auranus base is for veterans who've worked for the Guard for more than ten years. The Auranus base also has the least amount of members as a whole base. Most of you operators will be either assigned to a Depot or be traveling to assist any ranger who also hasn't been assigned anywhere, which there are most likely very many."

The bell then chimed with an ethereal ring and everyone's notebooks slammed closed, the pencils dropping with a heartbeat. I was indifferent as I jammed by supplies into my bag. The girls around were chirping about how they would try to get one of the operator jobs in a base. Or how they'd rather be traveling the region instead. Me? I didn't really know what I wanted.

The next time I'd see Ms. Knightly, it was as my secret capture instructor and I'd call her Phoenix.

I shot out the capture disc with ease as the last daylights of that time was settling into our skins. Gardevoir stood beside me as the Rufflet cocked its fluffy head to us, but upon seeing a blue line streak past it, the bird jumped and tried to flap its dwarf wings. It began to flee our training area with its tail between its legs. I looked over to Gardeovir who nodded. She took in a great breath before shooting out her arm. An angled barrier materialized to block the way of the chick. I ran up to the Rufflet and swiftly drew the many-some loops around the baby pokemon. It was quickly subdued, lighting up gently before skipping over to brush its face into my leg.

I beamed over to Phoenix who shook her head, "The barrier use is becoming more creative, but an psycic-type ranger can do that. If you want to progress anywhere and get a name for yourself, then you have to create your own style with Gardevoir. And about the actual capture, you still have to draw over fifteen loops to capture the pokemon, Tora. A beginner Rufflet. You may be quick but its going to tire you out over time."

"Sorry, I'll work on it," I bowed my head to the teacher. My proud light flickering away as she lectured me.

"Tora, answer me this. What are you fighting for?"

I just looked off to the Rufflet beside me who smiled with a chipper cheer. But it was fake wasn't it?

"Well I thought that was really cool lookin'!" A voice cheered from out of side of Phoenix and I. The ranger skin crawled while I swung my head around to find the source. It was a small girl sitting on a large rock that leaned against the dormitory building. Her ruffly purple dress falling to her ankles as she kicked her legs back and forth. The girl's blue eyes were only accented by her pink hair falling around her like a cloak. The evening light made her ghostly skin seem even more eerie as she smiled, "I wish I could be a ranger too." The girl started to scratch the top of her Cubchoo's head sadly.

Phoenix let out a sigh of relief, "Alice! Don't sneak up on us like that! I was ready to beat the crap of who ever was spying on us."

Alice's eyes grew large and watery, "Ah! Please don't hurt me!"

"I wasn't going to, you dolt."

Alice wiped the sweat from her brow with relief, "But really, being able to even move like that is a feat, Tora. Arceus knows I couldn't!"

I angled my head to her, "Why couldn't you?"

"Eh, hehe..." Alice laughed like it was funny. Her eyes shut as she said, "Well, my body wouldn't let me."

"Are you implying that since you're a girl, you can't be a ranger?" I started to instigate.

"No! Not at all! I-I just can't, okay?"

I crossed my arms to her, "Family? I stood up against my family for this. Why can't _you_? Alice, you can do anything you want. So why don't you? Just stand up, I know you don't want to stand out but you can do whatever you want."

"I just _can't_ , alright? So stop acting like you know what _my_ problems are because they're mine an' mine alone!" the small teenager shouted suddenly with a fiery rage that broke her usual flexibility. Her eyes widening like she was shocked by her own sudden outburst. I just stared at her. She dealt with Anya and Phoenix constantly teasing her, the class, people thinking she was just a kid. And this'd gotten her _angry_?

I was about to say something else when Phoenix's arm shout out to say no more. The fire haired woman approached the rattling girl, removing her own styler and placing it in Alice's hand, "How about this, you can capture one pokemon. If you can't be a ranger, you can play one for just a minute."

Alice glanced at the red technology in her hands, then to the ranger as if asking with her eyes if it was really alright. She grinned slightly and clipped the styler on her arm, taking a few seconds to fidget with it before it fit. I opened up my own styler and released the Rufflet I'd just captured so Alice could try her hand.

Alice faced the little grey and white feathered pokemon as she grinned, "Capture... On!" the rose-haired girl cried out like she'd been practicing the two words for her entire life. She shot out the capture disc with a heavy slam. The Rufflet, knowing this too well, began to run away like it had done before, "Wait! Come back!" Alice screeched, chasing after the little bird in circles. Her arm was flying around in circles after it. The blue trail filled loops that sometimes would catch the little pokemon. Her Cubchoo slid in the way of the other pokemon to block its way, giving Alice the time to capture the Rufflet. She pointed out her capture arm which trembled heavily. She moved her left hand on top of it for steadiness as she crafted the circles very carefully. It was only maybe six loops until she finalized the capture. The Rufflet lit up as proof of the capture before it ran up to her.

The little girl smiled brightly as heavy sweat dropped down her face with heavy breaths. She started to leap up and down in happiness, "I did it! I captured a pokemon! You saw that, right, Cubchoo? I did it! I-" Her moment though was cut off by her own body. Once her feet landed on the ground, both her arms flew around her stomach. She began to cough, her breaths were dry-heaving before following up with a disgustingly shaken cough. The bridge of her eyes let small tears trickles down. Alice dropped to her knees, her entire body trembling.

Both Phoenix and I didn't hesitate as we flew to her sides. Phoenix grabbed Alice's shoulders to steady her as I placed a hand on the coughing girl's back, "Alice, what's happening?" Phoenix buzzed with worry.

The coughing slowed, only becoming a shallow breathing. Alice's light eyes were dull and wide as she rested. I felt her lungs expand heavily, a wheezing shake trembling in her back as she placed foreward a smiling façade. Her eyes were closed once again, "Ah! It's nothing! It happens all the time, though that was worse than someof the other times... I think I'm gonna go to our room now! See ya'!" Alice quickly scampered to her feet, away from both Phoenix and me. She motioned to Cubchoo, placing the styler onto the grass carefully. Both the girl and the ice-type carefully took their time to flee.

I watched along with Phoenix as the future-operator hobbled off back into the building. "Shouldn't we call a doctor?"

"No. If she's going to pretend that everything is alright, then that's her choice. We will pretend too," Phoenix breathed slightly, bending over to pick up the small styler, "But she can't hide the truth forever."

I silently stared at Phoenix who just shrugged with a crooked smile, "What do you think's wrong with her?"

"Who knows."


End file.
